Firefighter dies after Ice Bucket Challenge accident
According to CNN Reports, A Kentucky firefighter has died, weeks after participating in an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that went horribly wrong.
Electricity from a power line shocked four
firefighters on a ladder as they sprayed water on a group of college students
below who were trying to pull off the charity stunt.
Crews from the Fire and Rescue Department in
Campbellsville were helping the Campbellsville University band with their video
"Challenge" August 21.
Capt. Tony Grider died Saturday from burn-related
injuries, according to dispatcher Mark Coker with the Campbellsville-Tyler 911
Center. The 41-year-old's body was driven, accompanied by an official escort,
to his hometown of Columbia, Kentucky, and transferred to Grissom-Martin
Funeral Home. There are no details yet about his funeral, Coker said.
The fire department posted a message on Facebook which included a "thank you"
from Grider's family to the nurses and doctors who tried to save his life, and
the firefighters who spent time at the hospital hoping that he would recover.
Grider leaves behind a wife and children. They all
lived in the same home with his parents in Columbia.
Firefighter Simon Alex Quinn, also injured in the
Ice Bucket Challenge, was released from the hospital Tuesday, according to
Coker.
During the ALS stunt, Grider and Quinn were inside a
bucket on a ladder above the students. When they finished dumping water, the
students left and the firefighters began moving the ladder, authorities told
CNN. The bucket came close to power lines and shocked the men, officials said.
Two firefighters who were on the ground -- Capt.
Steve Marrs, 37, and Alex Johnson, 28 -- were shocked when they tried to lower
the bucket and an electric current traveled down the extended ladder, Campbellsville
Police Chief Tim Hazlette said at the time.
An investigation is ongoing. Hazlette told CNN in
August that the ladder did not actually touch the power lines.
The power company told investigators that if one
gets within a distance of three to four feet from a power line, the energy that
surrounds the voltage wire can arc and electrocute other objects, Hazlette told
CNN. That's what authorities believe happened in this case.
hospital hoping that he would
recover.
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