The Rise and Fall of the Outlaw Lineman

Over the last decade, an army of hard-living adrenaline junkies has helped maintain the nation's power grid, keeping your lights on and Internet running.

- By Greg Donahue. Photographs by Andrew Spear.

Sure, it's among the nation's deadliest jobs. It also pays great. Now the same forces driving up energy bills are trying to squeeze the guys out. It was good while it lasted.

LAST AUGUST, IN SEMINOLE, FLORIDA, A SUBURB OF ST. PETERSburg, a crew of power linemen were replacing a utility pole at a small electrical substation next to a used-car dealership. The temperature was pushing 90 degrees, but the sky was clear; an ideal Florida beach day. Just before 2:00 P.M., they strapped the replacement metal pole to the boom on their truck and hoisted it vertically into the air.

Setting a new pole is an act of both muscularity and balletic precision, but for experienced linemen, it’s a typical task. The new pole must be held steady at the bottom while an operator in the truck uses a claw on the end of the boom to maneuver it into a waiting hole. When done right, linemen can replace multiple utility poles in a day, but things in Seminole didn’t go as planned: When the boom operator attempted to grab the pole with the claw, he bumped against it instead, causing the top of the pole to accidentally make contact with the high-voltage transmission lines running overhead.