GREENVILLE, Mich., June 20 (UPI) -- A 16-year-old Michigan boy was electrocuted by a downed power line while trying to help neighbors, police said.
Christopher O'Neill, 16, of Greenville called 911 to report a power pole on his street had snapped in a storm Thursday night, The Grand Rapids Press reported Saturday.
As he made the call, O'Neill thought he saw a fire across the street at the home of a family with five small children. Handing the phone to his mother to complete the 911 call, O'Neill ran to warn the neighbors but failed to see a live power line in the neighbors' yard, the Press reported.
"He didn't think twice," said the teen's father, Patrick O'Neill.
The neighbor, Sean Dykstra, was calling 911 at the same time and saw O'Neill being electrocuted by the line. "I just saw a boy out of the corner of my eye and it lit up," Dykstra said Friday.
As it turned out, there was no fire at the Dykstra home and the flames O'Neill saw likely were sparks flashing from the pole's transformer just before it snapped and fell to the ground, police said.
