Man killed by power line

By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer

August 19, 2008 11:38 pm

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A 26-year-old construction worker from Pawhuska was killed when he came in contact with a live power line just before 6 p.m. Monday near Webbers Falls, said Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson.
The accident occurred near U.S. 64 and the Muskogee Turnpike exit, said Webbers Falls Police Chief Tim Brown.
Lance Labelle, with Calvary Construction Co., an Osage Nation company, was connecting phases with new high-tension power lines, Brown said.
“There was no power to those lines, but a third line he came in contact with was a hot line,” Brown said. “Point of entry was through his hands.”
Labelle was in a “cherry picker” (a bucket extended from a truck) and fellow workers got another cherry picker and managed to lower him to the ground and gave him CPR immediately, Brown said.
They knew exactly what to do, Brown said.
“They didn’t get panicky — they tried everything they knew how to do,” Brown said.
Labelle died almost instantly, Brown said.
Labelle was not married and had no children. His mother recently died and his father lives in Colorado, Brown said. Labelle was a member of the Osage Nation, the police chief said.
“His uncle owns the construction company,” Brown said.