Building-jump exercise lands man in burn unit

Incident remains under investigation; victim hospitalized in Miami.

Am an practicing“park our” a top Clematis Street structures with two friends landed on top of a live power line, shocking himself.

WEST PALM BEACH — A man shocked by a power line late Wednesday, apparently while jumping between the rooftops of downtown buildings, is the first significant injury from Parkour reported in West Palm Beach, city police said Friday.

Parkour is a military-type exercise in which people move over obstacles by running, jumping, flipping and other forms of movement.

The man and two friends apparently were practicing Parkour on top of buildings near Clematis Street and Dixie Highway at about 11:30 p.m. when he stepped on a overhead power line, said Sgt. David Lefont, West Palm Beach police spokesman.

Police said the men had climbed up a metal pipe to the roof of the building at 314 Clematis St. and walked westward toward the building at 100 S. Dixie Highway. The victim then apparently tried to step on a Florida Power & Light Co. power pole to jump to the building at 120 S. Dixie Highway.

He touched the live wire, sending more than 7,000 volts of electricity into his body, Lefont said.

The two other men told police that they found the victim in the alley breathing but unresponsive. They said they saw an explosion and a white light.

The man was taken to St. Mary’s Medical Center, then to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where there is a trauma center for burn victims. No update on his condition was available Friday afternoon.

Mariellen Wagner, owner of The Gymnastics Revolution, offers

Parkour training at her gym in Riviera Beach. She said it should be done only at a facility with soft padding or mats — and never outside or on concrete.

“You got people who want to climb things and flip overs cars, and when they don’t have the facility to do these things, they are going to go outside and do it,” said Wagner, adding, “We use matting underneath everything.”

Until Wednesday night, no serious injuries from Parkour had been reported in West Palm Beach, Lefont said. But this is not the first serious Parkour injury reported in Florida.

In November, a man fell from a three-story building in Cocoa while practicing Parkour, the Orlando Sentinel reported. The man was found face down on the ground with serious head trauma. City police called for more patrolling and asked businesses to secure their buildings from rooftop access.

A manager at the Jimmy Johns on Clematis Street, a business in one of the buildings the men apparently walked across, said he usually sees about two to three officers on Segways when working an early-morning shift. He did not hear about the Parkour incident until he was asked about it.

Lefont said a division of officers patrols the downtown area each night.

Most downtown building are either close together or connected, raising the possibility that people could jump across them.

Raphael Clemente, director of the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority, also had not heard about the incident and said he was not aware that people practiced Parkour on city buildings.

Lefont said a report was pending on whether the men will face any charges.

FPL is working with city police during the investigation and its “thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the person who was involved in this incident,” the company said in a statement.