tHIS SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR ALL COPPER THIEVES.

Apparent copper thief gets severe shock

08:57 PM CST on Wednesday, February 27, 2008

By JESSICA VESS KVUE News

Witnesses describe how a copper thief caused a major power outage in East Austin Wednesday afternoon. Over 7,000 people were without electricity for more than two hours, and authorities say the thief was air lifted to the hospital with severe electrical burns over his entire body.

The man was inside the Kingsbury substation. 138,000 volts flow through that substation. There are only 10 substations that large in the entire city. It's fenced in and the gates are locked. Warning signs are posted all around it indicating the threat of a severe electric shock from the equipment could kill someone.

Wednesday afternoon Austin Energy officials say it appears that the man cut through the fence in several spots and then went inside, apparently attempting to cut out copper wire that connects the station to the ground.

“I heard something pop and everything like that and I came from the creek,” said witness Jesse Hernandez.

When Hernandez came up he saw a man still stuck inside the fence of the sub-station. The man was engulfed in flames, 100% of his body was burned.

“I was telling him to stop and roll around in the grass but he was already burnt up,” said Hernandez.

Others nearby rushed out too after the loud pops. The electric shock that caught the man on fire also cut off power to 7,300 homes. Most people wanted to see what caused the noise, but nobody expected to see a man on fire.

“It was scary because like we heard those two big breakers pop and we went outside and we just saw him back there running like crazy. His whole clothes were on fire. You could see the flames on him. After all we just seen back there and his clothes, I mean his skin was just coming off,” said witness Ricardo Rodriguez.

The man was taken by STAR flight to Brackenridge Hospital. He was then transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He has burns over his full body and is in extremely critical condition. Austin Energy officials estimate he was shocked with 80,000 volts of electricity.

Austin Energy crews inspected the substation and found multiple equipment grounds missing. Those wires are there so that a power surge caused by lightening or failure will flow into the ground rather than into the equipment. Crews also noticed that the surge may have damaged the equipment too. Crews had to pull new wires and had power restored in about two hours.

Austin energy officials say they've seen an increase in copper thefts at substations like the one on Kingsbury as well as power poles and transmission towers. In South Texas a man died trying to remove copper wiring from similar equipment. It's still unclear what this man's condition is or what charges he may face. Austin Energy says it is increasing surveillance around its substations.