By Burke Olsen
An unidentified man is in stable condition after being electrocuted and falling from a ladder at a local Hogi Yogi early Thursday afternoon, Feb. 15.
The man was working on a fluorescent sign at the Hogi Yogi on 44 E. Bulldog Blvd. in Provo, when he was assaulted with up to 800 volts of electricity. The shock sent him and his ladder crashing to the cold, hard ground.
Hogi Yogi shift manager Julia Davis, 18, a BYU freshman from San Bernardino, Calif. saw the man working on the sign. She was looking outside when the ladder fell and ran to see what had happened.
Davis said she saw the man lying on the ground, shaking and convulsing.
'His eyes were closed and he wasn''t talking,' she said. 'It looked like he was having a seizure.'
He appeared to have a gash or burn on his right cheek and a cut on his neck, Davis said.
She ran back into the store to call 911, while another manager, Nicole Barnhill, stayed with the man until the ambulance arrived, Davis said.
Scott Holladay, of Salt Lake City, is an electrician for Key Electric and was called by Hogi Yogi after the accident, to make sure that there was no more danger. He said that the man had been standing on a metal ladder placed on wet grass, leaning against metal framing.
'All of that contact must have created a complete circuit,' Holladay said. 'It wasn''t the smartest thing to do, putting a metal ladder on the wet ground like that.'
Holladay turned off the breaker that controlled power for the sign, set his fiberglass ladder in the same spot and climbed up.
'I could see a couple of fried wires up there,' Holladay said. He covered the exposed wires to make it safe until all necessary repairs could be done.