One Person Injured While Trying to Restore Power After Fire

The Fort Worth Fire Department confirms an Oncor worker was injured Monday night while trying to restore power after a fire. An abandoned apartment building caught fire Monday afternoon, spewing smoke into the Fort Worth sky.

The building at 9th Avenue and West Cannon Street started as a single-alarm fire around 6 p.m. and quickly grew to a two-alarm fire. Fort Worth firefighters reported heavy fire and smoke on arrival and attempted an interior attack, but had to pull out due to advanced fire conditions.

The first damaged power lines in the area and caused Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth to lose main power. The hospital's emergency generators immediately provided power and kept patients from being affected.

Around 9:20 p.m. an Oncor employee was working to restore power in the area when power lines fell on a nearby fence. The contact caused two large explosions, sending sparks flying into the sky.
Fire fighters ran to the area to find the man lying on the ground.

Paramedics transported him to Parkland Hospital in Dallas. Firefighters said the man was talking when they transported him.

"Thankfully his injuries do not appear to life threating, he is conscious, he is talking, it looks like he's going to be okay. Everyone at Oncor is very thankful for that, because we know what kind of jobs our employees in the field have. We're very thankful to hear that he's going to be okay," Oncor spokeswoman Megan Wright said on Tuesday.

Oncor says it is investigating what happened, but that crews were working on a downed line.

Wright says this is a good example of why no one in the public should ever touch or get near a downed power line.

Fort Worth Fire says a cause for the fire has not yet been determined. Arson investigators were at the site on Tuesday morning sorting through debris on the western side of the apartment complex. There's also no word on the cost of damages.

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