LAKEVIEW — A 24-year-old man is in critical condition after being electrocuted while performing maintenance on an apartment building in the 700 block of West Oakdale Avenue.
The man was working to replace a window outside Caroline Schutz’s third-floor apartment.
"He was tuckpointing our windows and he fell. He grabbed onto those wires and got electrocuted,” said Schutz, 23.
The man, whose identity has not been released, was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital for an electric shock, fire officials said. The incident occurred at around 3 p.m., police said.
Brian Murphy was one of the last people to see the man before an ambulance arrived. He said he heard a "loud boom" before he found the man laying face down, gasping for breath near downed wires beneath the scaffolding.
He and a friend tried to help the man as a crowd of about 30 people gathered, though an ambulance arrived quickly with professional care.
"He was like a fish out of water," Murphy said of the man, who was visibly bleeding from the head.
Power on the block was shut down due to two transistors blowing out following the accident, Murphy said. He later called Illinois Masonic hospital to check on the man and was told he was in surgery.
"I'm still shaken up," he said.
Scaffolding erected in the alley between Oakdale and Wellington avenues appeared dangerously close to a rat’s nest of wires as ComEd crews worked to secure the area hours after the incident.
- Kyla Gardner contributed reporting.
