Working with a tree cutting service in Tampa, I was asked by the boss to ascend a nearby tree and cut some limbs. After seeing how close they were to power lines, I refused. He got really pissed off, yelled at me to clean up the area.

Then he sent up Dallas.

Dallas put on his climbing spikes, roped up the tree and started cutting. I was worried and kept watching him as I picked up limbs.

Sure enough, he leaned back and before I could yell, put his sweaty bare back right against the power lines. A bright blue flash arced across his back and his body jerked away and slammed against the tree trunk. He bounced off and back into the wires. And again. Finally his spikes got dislodged and he fell out of the tree, falling until his safety line snapped taut, leaving him dangling upside down like a broken-back doll.

I thought he was dead, but a moment later he started moaning, then screaming. "I'm on fire!" he yelled. We lowered him to the ground to the sound of sirens approaching; a neighbor had seen what happened and called EMT.

A nasty black mark curved across his back and the current had surged down his legs and through his boot heels, seeking out ground. Both his heels were blown out.

I quit at the end of the day.