While reporting on a heavy blanketing of snow in southwest Portland, a KATU news crew narrowly escaped danger after a falling tree limb pulled a power line to the ground feet away from their live truck.
“I was terrified,” KATU reporter Lincoln Graves said. “As soon as the sky lit up and I heard the ‘zapping’ sounds, I thought the worst. I put my hands over my head thinking our truck mast had somehow touched a power line.”
When the power line hit the ground, Graves was inside the KATU truck while photojournalist Brian Smith was outside the vehicle.
Fearing that the ground had been electrified, Graves stayed put and reported live on the downed power line from inside the news van (video above), updating viewers on the situation as a nearby SUV caught fire.
The daughter of the owner of the SUV was actually watching KATU at the time and spotter her mother’s car on TV as it went up in flames.
Graves was eventually able to safely exit the KATU truck and delivered this report standing in front of the SUV as firefighters worked to put out the blaze…
[h/t NewsBlues]