A 39-year-old man in a bucket truck was fatally electrocuted Tuesday in Ashton, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service radio transmissions and Montgomery County police.
MCFRS were dispatched to the 200 block of Ashton Road around 11:56 a.m. for a “contractor bucket in the air making contact with power lines,” MCFRS spokesperson David Pazos wrote on social media.
According to radio transmissions, flames could be seen from the bucket of a Verizon utility truck, but people on the ground could no longer see the worker.
As of about 12:45, the Baltimore Gas and Electrical Co. had cut power in the area, allowing MCFRS crews to reach the worker, according to MCFRS radio transmissions.
The worker, an adult male, was pronounced dead at the scene, Pazos wrote on social media shortly before 1:30 p.m.
More than 150 customers in the area were without power as of 1 p.m., according to the company’s website. Power was restored at about 1:30 p.m.
Ashton Road was closed between New Hampshire Avenue and Ligon Lane, according to county police. Drivers were advised to expect significant delays and to seek alternate routes.
All lanes had reopened as of about 6 p.m., according to the county.
Around 1 p.m., automotive technician Chet Em at the Exxon Mobile station on New Hampshire Avenue, said the station’s power had been out for an hour, leaving the station without air conditioning or working gas pumps. He said he heard the sirens of emergency vehicles earlier and thought there was a car crash.
“It’s hot!” he said.
Postmaster Tara Gavin at the U.S. post office in the Ashton Village Center on Olney Sandy Spring Road said some people had come in to tell her about the power outage. She was in the middle of telling a customer that the office couldn’t conduct business while the power was out when the lights came back on.
“Right on time! Now we can go back to work,” Gavin said as she helped the customer.