Education

Two Firefighters Badly Injured In Ice Bucket Challenge Gone Terribly Wrong

Font Size:

The social-media sensation that is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge took a disastrous, tragic turn on Thursday when two Campbellsville, Ky. firefighters were seriously injured at the conclusion of an event during which they doused freezing cold water on a college marching band.

The incident occurred at approximately 11:40 a.m. on the campus of Campbellsville University in rural Central Kentucky, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Two firefighters, Tony Grider and Simon A. Quinn, were operating the water nozzle on the raised bucket of a fire truck when a powerful charge of electricity arced from a power line in the vicinity.

The charge struck the two firefighters, badly burning them.

Emergency personnel airlifted Grider, 41, and Quinn, 22, to the University of Louisville Medical Center’s burn unit.

As of late Thursday night, Grider remained in critical condition. Quinn, a part-time member of the fire department, was listed in fair condition.

Two more firefighters received shocks but were not badly hurt. They received treatment at a local hospital and were released.

The four firefighters had gone in an aerial ladder truck to the 3,600-student Baptist-affiliated school — located just across the street from the firehouse — to take part in an Ice Bucket Challenge fundraiser for the fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), a neurodegenerative disease that slowly devastates the muscles of its victims.

The accident happened as the two gravely injured firefighters were lowering the fire truck bucket and it came too near a high-voltage power line.

Allen Johnson, previously chief of the Campbellsville fire department and the father of one of the two firefighters who suffered minor injuries, elaborated on the danger of power arcs.

“That voltage will jump feet. Not inches — feet,” Johnson told the Herald-Leader, adding that the power line that caused the injuries conducted 69,000 volts.

“The job that we do is dangerous,” the former chief added. “I hope it never happens, nowhere, to a firefighter again.”

The accident had other effects as well, knocking out power in parts of the surrounding county and a neighboring county for a little over an hour. Many landline phones were also affected.

Campbellsville University President Michael V. Carter released a statement expressing “heartfelt sympathy and prayers for the families of the two firefighters who were injured.”

Hundreds of students and local residents attended a prayer vigil on campus on Thursday night.

“They’re heroes, What they do is completely heroic,” a Campbellsville University student told local CBS affiliate WKYT. “They put their life on the line every day. It was a simple day, just helping some of the band students do an ALS water challenge and God had a different plan.”

Follow Eric on Twitter and on Facebook, and send education-related story tips to erico@dailycaller.com.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel