Girl 'fishing' causes area power outage
June 25, 2008 · Updated 12:02 PM
"A girl playing with a fishing pole on her family's lawn gave herself a shock and knocked out power from Freeland to Fox Spit earlier this month.Karl Kirn, Puget Sound Energy spokesman and veteran of the industry, said the incident was a fluke. This is the first time I've ever heard of this in 32 years, he said Monday.The girl's father, Tom Knutsen, said she was practicing casting Saturday morning, June 3, using only a lead weight and a hook. One cast went into overhead power lines, and the hook apparently wrapped around one line and then touched or came close to another.It shocked her, Knutsen said. How many kids go out and play with poles? Someone will end up dead one of these days. The girl did not need medical treatment, although Knutsen did call a doctor. It scared the heck out of me, he said.Kirn said a safety system kicked in and blew out the switch, resulting in a localized outage for an hour or two.The fact that the girl's fishing line hit two power lines at the same time caused the problem, Kirn said. It's the first time I've heard of casting a line into wires, causing such a problem, he said.Kirn said the incident is a good reminder to parents not to allow children to fly kites, cast fishing lines, or do anything similar with power lines in the area.Don't do anything around the lines, he said."
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