West Milton Police Chief Harry Busse said Mehaffey may have gone outside his home, possibly to inspect a car tire that had caught on fire, and was electrocuted. A nearby transformer had blown, as a power pole was on fire and a power line was down across the ground, officials said.
Mehaffey did not appear to have come in contact with the wire, but the ground — wet from rain — was energized, and that may have led to Mehaffey’s death, officials said. The Miami County Coroner ruled the official cause of death as electrocution.
Police initially responded to Locust Lane on the report of a blown transformer. But when they arrived on scene they found the power pole on fire and Mehaffey on the ground. Dayton Power & Light was called to the scene to cut power before police or medics approached Mehaffey, and the responding officer made sure his wife didn’t leave her front porch to check on her husband.
DP&L shut down a substation, which led to a reported 2,370 customers being without power for a short time. Power was restored just before 1 a.m.
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