Santa Rosa:

Trespasser falls off transmission tower, causes fire and outage

A trespasser was shocked by electrical lines when he climbed a 100-foot transmission tower in Santa Rosa on Tuesday afternoon, starting a fire on the ground when he fell and causing more than 2,000 homes and businesses to lose power, officials said.

Bystanders reported the man plummeted from the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. tower at 56 W. Sixth St. along Prince Memorial Greenway in Santa Rosa at about 1:45 p.m., according to the Santa Rosa Fire Department.

The man, whose name and age were not released, was about 80 feet up the tower when he apparently came in contact with the live wires and fell to the ground into a patch of dry grass, which caught fire, witnesses told firefighters.

The witnesses pulled him from the burning patch of grass and stopped the fire with fire extinguishers, according to the Fire Department.

The injured man was treated for significant burns at the scene, transported to a local trauma center, and eventually airlifted to UC Davis for further treatment for the extensive burns, fire officials said.

It was not immediately clear why he climbed the tower.

The incident caused about 2,200 PG&E customers to lose power briefly, and the incident remains under investigation by fire, police and PG&E officials, according to the Fire Department.

“Due to a previous incident of a person climbing this tower in March of 2017, PG&E added additional barriers to prevent people from climbing the tower,” fire officials said in a statement. “This incident highlights the reason warning signs and barriers are in place.”