"REA LINEMAN BURNED FATALLY HERE - CORRY MAN'S ARM CONTACTS 7,500 VOLTS - Dies in Agony in Hospital Shortly After Accident - RELATIVES HERE - Coroner and Project Superintendent Tell Tragedy Details - Death met Raymond Lawrence Adams, 25, lineman, when his bare arm came in contact with a 7200-volt cartridge fuse while working atop a 45-foot pole yesterday in White Township, near Indiana. HIs clothes bursting into flames, Adams, a married man, was burned to the bone in many places and his clothing adhered to his scorched flesh, Cor John Woods, investigator said. Despite his burns, Adams remained conscious until 15 minutes before he died at 7 pm in the Indiana Hospital, where he was admitted at 2:45 in the afternoon. A resident of Corry, Adams was an employe of the W V Pangborne Company, Philadelphia contractors who are constructing rural electrification lines for the South West Central Rural Electric Cooperative Association in this vicinity. Coroner Woods, assisted in his investigation by S J Orange, of Indiana, project superintendent, said he learned that Foreman Kenneth L Carpenter, also of Corry, had sent Adams up the pole to insert three cartridge fuses to place the line in operation. After placing two of the fuses Adams, whose arm was unprotected above his rubber glove, came into contact with the current. His body, held to the pole by a safety belt, sagged when the current struck him and his clothing caught fire. Running to the nearby home of John Smith, Foreman Carpenter obtained ropes and a ladder from painters who were working there. Mr Smith telephoned Company at Fulton Run, whence and emergency squad was dispatched in time to assist Carpenter in lowering Adams' body from the pole with a rope. Adams' wife and mother were notified by telephone in Corry and arrived at Indiana last night at 8:15 - an hour and a quarter after the young man had died. Raymond Lawrence Adams was born at Corry, March 10, 1913. He leaves his wife, Grace, and his mother, Edith Adams, as well as two brothers and one sister, all of Corry. Respects may be paid at the Bell Funeral Home...after which the body will be removed to the home of the mother at Corry, where services will be held at 2 pm Saturday. Burial will be in the Beaver Dam Cemetery."
(Indiana Evening Gazette, Aug 4, 1938, p.1)