Colorado Teen dies in electrified Virginia lake on the fourth of July

A Colorado teen died after he jumped into an electrified lake while celebrating on the 4th of July, according to reports.

Jesse Hamric, 18, dove into the water at Smith Mountain Lake outside Roanoke, Virginia, early Thursday morning, when friends immediately noticed something was wrong. The friends jumped in after Hamric and felt themselves getting shocked upon entering the water. Despite their own injuries, they were able to pull Hamric out, according to WDBJ. One of the friends began CPR on Hamric while another called for help.

Rescue crews arrived at around 4 a.m. and rushed Hamric to a hospital, where he later died. His two friends suffered minor injuries. An investigation by fire crews detected electrical currents in the water where the teen died, and police determined it was caused by stray voltage spreading from a dock at a nearby private residence. No foul play is suspected in the death.

https://nypost.com/2024/07/07/us-news/colorado-teen-dies-after-jumping-into-electrified-virginia-lake/

That is one dirty, unpleasant lake and i won't get in it.  Even in College I skied on that lake and made a point of NEVER falling into that lake for fear of what was just under the surface...yuge muskelunge, lumber, floating submerged trees, dead bodies, filth.

I have ideas about how that lake was 'electrified'.   Was it an accident??   down wire, submerged power line.   one more reason to avoid it. I have friends who swear that they were abducted by space aliens on the back roads going in and out of Smith Mountain Lake.  and knowing these two, they probably were.

sounds like it was alot more than stray voltage. stray voltage usualy is the ceiling grid being energized by the neutral due to the electrical closet on each floor having the grounding and neutral tied together. that stray voltage is usually 277v. the lake wouldve been 120v and a over breakered wire got wet and leaked into the lake. theres a reason electrified docks are scrutinized to a high level. the owner just lost all his property.

Just saw something on that William Shatner show. Weird things. I don't know the name oh wait unexplained or something like that about a woman struck by lightning twice and survived. Considering how few people survive, how does a lightning strike affect your body from that point on. Internally and externally.

i suspect after a woman is zapped by mighty Zeus, twice, not much is very enlightening.

Calypso Jones wrote:

I have ideas about how that lake was 'electrified'.   Was it an accident??   down wire, submerged power line.   one more reason to avoid it. I have friends who swear that they were abducted by space aliens on the back roads going in and out of Smith Mountain Lake.  and knowing these two, they probably were.

I can guess. The vacation-home set like to use their piers or docs as open-air cocktail patios - and if the dock is private, string lights along it.

There's a lot of ways of doing it, some safe. I mentioned my family had built a rustic cabin on a New York lake. We were quite primitive there - we had power, of course, but no ostentatious lit pathways, or rows of pole lamps, or concrete jockeys holding a ring out to guests, with a lantern in the other hand. We had a floodlight on the front porch, which was second-story on the front (the poured basement was the first story in front) and that soulless light was fine for utility work, glare-ridden and unattractive for anything else.

Light off the front windows was enough to put a little light on the small plot of grass between the cabin and the water's edge.

For the crude dock we had, we used four tiki torches.

That was us. In places they're not allowed - for fire reasons - there's outdoor buried-wiring low-voltage light sets. Twelve volts, IIRC. String them along, put the wires along the pier to shore...totally safe, even if there's bared wiring in the water. You might feel a tingle.

Nobody gets electrocuted in a car; same voltage. The amount of amperage required to start a fire, would trip the transformer first.

But here, some bozo just ran a power line - maybe a 120-volt series of extension cords - out a dock. Maybe to charge a boat, or power tools to work on the dock or boat. Maybe just for lights.

That's exactly what the low voltage is to prevent. Anyone who runs a live extension cord out a dock for ANY reason, is too stupid to live.

jirqoadai wrote:i suspect after a woman is zapped by mighty Zeus, twice, not much is very enlightening.

That is funny. Finely done.

Casey Jones wrote:

Calypso Jones wrote:

I have ideas about how that lake was 'electrified'.   Was it an accident??   down wire, submerged power line.   one more reason to avoid it. I have friends who swear that they were abducted by space aliens on the back roads going in and out of Smith Mountain Lake.  and knowing these two, they probably were.

I can guess.  The vacation-home set like to use their piers or docs as open-air cocktail patios - and if the dock is private, string lights along it.

There's a lot of ways of doing it, some safe.  I mentioned my family had built a rustic cabin on a New York lake.  We were quite primitive there - we had power, of course, but no ostentatious lit pathways, or rows of pole lamps, or concrete jockeys holding a ring out to guests, with a lantern in the other hand.  We had a floodlight on the front porch, which was second-story on the front (the poured basement was the first story in front) and that soulless light was fine for utility work, glare-ridden and unattractive for anything else.

Light off the front windows was enough to put a little light on the small plot of grass between the cabin and the water's edge.

For the crude dock we had, we used four tiki torches.  

That was us.  In places they're not allowed - for fire reasons - there's outdoor buried-wiring low-voltage light sets.  Twelve volts, IIRC.  String them along, put the wires along the pier to shore...totally safe, even if there's bared wiring in the water.  You might feel a tingle.

Nobody gets electrocuted in a car; same voltage.  The amount of amperage required to start a fire, would trip the transformer first.

But here, some bozo just ran a power line - maybe a 120-volt series of extension cords - out a dock.  Maybe to charge a boat, or power tools to work on the dock or boat.  Maybe just for lights.

That's exactly what the low voltage is to prevent.  Anyone who runs a live extension cord out a dock for ANY reason, is too stupid to live.

orrrrrrr.......some idiot is watering the landscaping too much, and because the retarded electricians did NOT cement the pipe together IN JUST ONE JOINT, the water fills the conduit and when too much gets in there it drips into the lake after filling over a stripped hot from a too tight LB fitting. i could go on days with a litany of scenarios where alcohol and running electrical wiring on saturday so the inspector never knows you were there.