A South Florida man climbing a light pole plunged 50 feet to the ground after police say he touched a live wire and was nearly electrocuted.
Lauderhill police and fire-rescue were responding to an unrelated call near State Road 7 and Northwest 19th Street late Tuesday when they heard a noise. They then saw the man — who was on fire — falling from a light pole.
#Breaking#Lauderhill units on scene of an adult male that was electrocuted and fell approx 50 feet from a light pole. State Road 7 and NW 19th Street. Patient transported to @BrowardHealth in critical condition.
He was taken in critical condition to Broward Health Fort Lauderdale after being treated at the pole for “significant burns and injuries,” said Lt. Michael Santiago, a police spokesman.
He suffered burns on 60 percent of his body, plus entrance and exit wounds from the electric shock, WFTV reported.
Santiago says the man wasn’t working with a power company and that it’s still unclear why he was climbing the pole.
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription
