Two firefighters were seriously injured after helping a group of college students in marching band participate in the recently widespread ALS ice bucket challenge. The truck positioned too close to a power line when electricity arced from a high-voltage line to the bucket of an aerial ladder truck the two were using in a student fundraising event, police said.
Tony Young, the Campbellsville Mayor, said that the four who were injured in the accident are dedicated firefighters, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. Of the two who were seriously injured, one was in critical condition and the other was stable, Campbellsville Police Chief Tim Hazlette said.
The two firefighters who were in critical condition were Capt. Tony Grider, 41, and Simon A. Quinn, 22. Grider remained in critical condition on Thursday night, while Quinn was restored to fair condition.
In stable condition were Steve Marrs, 37, and Alex Johnson, 28. The two were fortunately not seriously injured by the incident, and were immediately discharged from the hospital after receiving treatment, according to the Herald report.
The ladder never touched the line, but it carried such a high voltage, someone nearby could be shocked, the police chief said. The incident caused a power knock out for a portion of the area. 4,700 Kentucky Utilities customers, supplied by rural electrical cooperatives in Taylor and Green counties also were affected by the outages, and power was restored just before 1 p.m. local time.
The Campbellsville University band was putting a fundraising activity through an ice bucket challenge to raise money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. The challenge was able to raise more than $41 million through the effort.
Campbellsville University, about 65 miles south of Louisville, is a private Christian institution that has comprises 3,600 students, according to its website. Fortunately, no students were hurt. The university initiated a prayer vigil held on campus on Thursday night.
