Rossmoor : Youth Seriously Injured by Touching Power Line

A 15-year-old Rossmoor boy was seriously injured Saturday when he touched a high voltage line with an aluminum pole he was using to retrieve a friend’s pet bird, an Orange County Fire Department spokesman said.

Arthur Stahl was in the back yard of his home at 11882 Weatherby Road, trying to coax a cockateel--an Australian parrot--down from a telephone line where it had roosted, according to Ron Murphy, a spokesman for the department.

Stahl had placed an aluminum ladder against a telephone pole, which Murphy said was clearly marked by a yellow sign reading: “Danger: High Voltage!” The youth then extended a pool brush toward the bird, in hopes it would hop onto the brush.

But the pole touched the wire, Murphy said, and the electrical shock knocked Stahl off the ladder and 15 feet to the ground. According to witnesses, Stahl was unconscious for about a minute. Neighbors then helped him walk to his house.

When paramedics arrived, Murphy said, Stahl was on the floor of the dining room, alert and awake, but he was complaining of pains in his right arm and right leg. While emergency treatment was being administered, an air ambulance was called. Stahl was taken to a nearby school yard by ground ambulance and and then flown by helicopter to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. He was later transferred to the burn center of Torrance Memorial Hospital, where he was reported in intensive care.