A Wet Rope, a Live Wire, and a Boy on a Bricklaying Crew
Reed Crews was coming down from a tin roof when a wet rope touched a power line. The accident left him dying and exposed the everyday lethality of 1909 work.
WALLA WALLA — Burned, with no hope for his recovery, Reed Crews, a Walla Walla boy, lies at St. Mary's hospital in a dying condition, as the result of falling upon live electric wires. Young Crews was employed with a gang of bricklayers. While coming down from work on a tin roof and in steadying himself by means of a wet rope, the latter swung against a live wire that immediately completed the circuit, throwing him onto the wires. Before he could be rescued his body was burned to a crisp and all his clothing was destroyed.
“Before he could be rescued his body was burned to a crisp and all his clothing was destroyed.”
In 1909, workplace safety depended heavily on individual caution and luck; a wet rope touching a live wire was enough to kill. Washington now enforces electrical-safety and fall-protection rules, but the story remains a reminder of who pays when ordinary work turns deadly.
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