Gabriel Thomas Mondragon, 29 years old, who recently arrived from New Mexico, explained to Sheriff’s Deputies that in an attempt to make the people on Orcas “suffer just like the whales and trees”, he attempted to use a tree limbing saw -on a metal pole- to cut through a 69,000 volt power line. […] Being well informed on the power of high voltage power lines, Mondragon cleverly put on several pair of latex dishwashing gloves to isolate him from electrocution, and proceeded to touch saw to power line.
Not the brightest bulb, but I’m sure the flames were visible for miles!
He came so close to making the finals of the Darwins. Too bad.
shocking!!!
It’s not the voltage, it’s the current. Here’s an example of
a high current circuit breaker that doesn’t open cleanly.
Needless to say, a power saw is even worse:
video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-4550247301171325980
He must have watched An Inconvenient Truth too many times.
If you should come across another Willy, here’s a safety tip: if the power line is touching the ground, think of the voltage influencing the ground as concentric circles of increasing voltage ending at the maximum where the line touches the ground and lowest furthest from the line/ground contact. If you are in the charged area and you take big steps to walk away the voltage potential difference between your feet may be enough to electrocute you. Walk away by taking small enough steps to keep your feet constantly in contact (shuffle). Do not touch any object such as your car door and the ground at the same time.
If he had on some good old rubber boots-you know, with the tops rolled over so you look cool, not like a geek-then he would have been OK,…….maybe.
Maybe not.
Thing is, if “real” terrorist wanted too, the electrical grid is so large and vital links are in some of the most remote and hospitipal locations, damage to them would be a devastating event to our daily lives. Repair could take days or even weeks.
Scary.
It’s a real shame that he lived.
Well, besides the fact that this idiot didn’t take the Darwin award, I am rather amazed at the comment: “…County Prosecutor Randy Gaylord will determine what, if any, charges may be pending…”.
This is obviously a sharp prosecutor too. Perhaps they are contemplating what rate he should be charged for the power used to fry his ass.
Chairman Howard Rosenfeld said he was sure the OPALCO facilities are “not hardened against this type of thing, and never will be; so we need to stop alienating our own people.”
Has not got a clue.
… charges may be pending…
He was already “charged!”
\rimshot
How shocking!!
Thanks for the morning laugh, Kate. Kudos to the police and parmedics who were able to do their jobs sufficiently well (refrain from laughing) to get the man to the hospital. I suggest a stop in the psyche ward after intensive care.
I think the Darwin awards are also awarded to someone who sterilizes himself as a result of such an action. There was no mention of such damage in the article but everything else about the story seems like it would be a good Darwin Awards candidate.
Reminds me of a headline in a Seattle newspaper when I was out there a couple weeks ago. See related at CCN:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/03/03/seattle.fire/
It’s about time we start treating the tree-hugging eco-terrorist types like al-Qaeda. Perhaps we could ship them to Guantanamo Bay. 🙂
I wonder if we performed intelligence tests on these environuts if we would discover something else they all have in common.
From the article.
“This tragic incident underlines the importance of public education about the dangers of power lines and electrical safety, “ stated OPALCO General Manager, Randy Cornelius.
Now the ‘Education and Equality for Eco- terrorists’ front will be making a statement re-inforcing what we already know, and demanding funding….this man has rights dontcha know?!
So who pays his medical bills?
He kinda reminds me of a certain Opposition Leader in his quest for an election. Iggy and Boob are so similar to the gloves,it’s eerie.
Why do always wrong people survive?
Proving just how stupid these enviromentalists wackos are getting i mean their completly out of their minds like the idiots sitting naked on the mounttian or the greenpeace idiot running onto that airliner at the heathroe airport to unfurl their stpud banners i mean only a jerk has anything to do with these enviromentalists groups
I’d start selling tickets to his followers.
“This tragic incident underlines the importance of public education about the dangers of power lines and electrical safety, “ stated OPALCO General Manager, Randy Cornelius.
Is this Electric company mouthpiece as stupid as the pruning shear terrorist?
As if this Mondragon terrorist needed to be educated about the “dangers” of powerlines!
We need more education, teaching that people are at the top of the food-chain and that yes we must take care of animals and environment but never at the expense of hurting people.
More and more we will see the fruits of the new green cult as people trade in their brains for the ones Suzuki, Gore and PETA would like them to use.
Reminds me of the two Muslim youths in France who also got fried by high voltage while trying to hide from the police.
I think this ignorance of the danger of high voltage installations only confirms that some of those immigrants coming from semi civilized nations are really disconnected ( no pun intended) from us, disconnected from modern western life.
Some knowledge or at least some awareness of technology and its dangers is part of Western society, and this knowledge or awareness can not reach people who resist integration and live in a remote fashion.
Time to sue the company that made the tree limbing saw … it’s obvious that they didn’t warn Gabe that it shouldn’t be used to cut power lines.
ural; I’m waiting for the lawsuit against the power co. as well as the saw maker. Obviously Moondragon shouldn’t have been able to climb the fence and the warning signs were too provocative causing him to rebel against the memory of his overly disciplinary Father.
And these are the people that we want to import into the country to fill the vacant skilled trades positions as we boomers retire.
Hence the term leftard… Too bad he doesn’t qualify for the Darwin Award. Maybe we can reduce it to Attempted Darwin Award.
I’m sure he won’t have medical coverage (and does insurance cover injuries caused by eco-terror?,) so I presume he will be a burden on the taxpayers twice: Once for the medical bills, and once for the room and board at the prison.
At least he’ll have the pain to remind him of his idiocy. He’s not going to have a fun time for the next decade or three. That should teach him a lesson the justice system won’t.
Incredibily lucky young man. When the saw teeth sheared through the cable armour and grounding sheath down to one of the conductors, the dead short was created straight to the nearby ground terminal via the sheath. A substantial quantity of the cable near the short would have become plasma. The plasma bloom is what lit him on fire and blew him some distance off. It is called an “arc flash” type of accident.
It is unlikely that much of the current would have passed through his body, as it’s resistance is far far greater than the grounding sheath. That is why it is there: damage to the cable that might expose a conductor will almost certainly crimp the ground sheath through the insulator and onto the conductor.
Power cables like that are too large for effective ground fault interruption – they usually rely on thermal protection. Ie: a fuse heats up and cuts the current when it gets too hot. A dead short like this would have been over before the fuse even got warm.
If any substantial portion of the current had of passed across the surface of his body (current “flows” across surfaces) a portion of his limbs would have been converted to super-heated steam. Accidents where this has happened are a horrible sight – unbelievably gruesome.
Lightning strikes have nowhere near the sustained power that a utility conductor has. That is why people struck by lightning don’t just explode. No real kick to it. I am serious, it is hard to understate how dangerous a high voltage utility conductor is.
Eco-terrorism like this is going to be on the rise, unfortunately, and sooner or later one of these nut-balls might actually have some knowledge to figure it out. Thankfully, they all seem quite ignorant, which is why they have these fantasy opinions in the first place.
“If he had on some good old rubber boots-you know, with the tops rolled over so you look cool, not like a geek-then he would have been OK,…….maybe.
Maybe not.”
Probably not, actually. Black rubber boots usually get their black from carbon pigment. Carbon is a pretty good conductor.
Hired a high voltage safety trainer to put on a few sessions a decade or so ago. One of his demos with his high voltage truck (could elevate the the voltage of the truck to about 25 kV.) was to set rubber boots on fire. Another was to cook sausages and yet another was to demonstrate that a green branch from a tree was pretty conductive and would burst into flame.
High voltage can be extremely nasty if not respected. The guy is lucky to be alive – a maroon instead of a burnt macaroon.
Natural selection, foiled again.
Electrical burns are indeed gruesome and this guy’s lucky to be alive. Right, now that I’ve got that out of my system. In the court of common sense he’s been found guilty of trespassing and alternatively of gross stupidity. He was let off on trespassing but electrocuted on the alternate charge ; )
At least if his tallywhacker burst into flames we can be reasonably sure that he won’t be siring any next-gen eco-kooks in the near future.
Orcas Island. A collection of greenies, hippies and yuppies. Transportation is by bicycle, unicycle, Volkswagen van or BMW. Very very little public shoreline — American property laws are different. The OPALCO power company in the story is actually a co-op owned by its customers. This eco-terrorist was like a panhandler who works the outside of the Whole Foods store.
Moonbat + flames = Moondragon
Inevitable!
Then put him in a prison cell wheres there no electricity and he can use a candle light and to heat up his nuts and berries he eats
Gabriel is my stepson, he is not new to Washington State having living there for the better part of 3 years. His Father and I we both live in Taos New Mexico found out just today that his arm was amputated 4 inches below his elbow. I agree his act was incredibly shocking and stupid, but we’re happy he’s alive. I personally feel that he has blemished his family name as his own family including his Father is a moral human being and at the moment feels anger at his sons action and stupidity.