A contractor, who is in his 20s, was rushed to the hospital in critical condition after he was electrocuted by a power line and found unresponsive in Gurnee Tuesday morning.
The Gurnee Fire Department and Gurnee Police Department responded around 10:58 a.m. Tuesday to the 3600 block of Country Club Avenue in Gurnee for a report of a person down.
Gurnee Fire Department Battalion Chief Tim Steffens said a neighbor called 911 to report seeing a person possibly struck by lightning.
The neighbor reported seeing a flash of light and a man down on the ground.
Police officers arrived and found the victim unconscious and not breathing, Steffens said.
ComEd was requested with an expedited response as a precautionary measure.
Firefighters and paramedics arrived and took over lifesaving measures.
Steffens said the victim, a man in his mid to late 20s, was brought to an ambulance where paramedics worked to revive him.
The ambulance transported him to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan in critical condition with life-threatening injuries.
The man regained a pulse when he got to the hospital but Steffens said his long-term prognosis is unclear.
Steffens said it was determined there was no lightning strike involved and that the victim appeared to be working as a contractor.
The contractor was measuring something related to fiber optic work.
He had been holding an approximately 25-foot-long metal measuring stick when he accidentally touched ComEd’s primary line approximately 30 feet in the air, causing him to be electrocuted, Steffens said.
No power outage was reported and there was no visible damage to anything.
The police department and ComEd remained at the scene investigating after the fire department left.
The incident remains under investigation by the Gurnee Police Department.