By Eduardo Castillo
The Wichita Eagle
GREAT BEND, Kan. — A 16-year-old Wichita teen has died after being electrocuted Tuesday morning while working at an airport in central Kansas.
The teen was identified as Ivan Joel Mollins. A second person, 24-year-old Allistar Jose Sanchez of Wichita, was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, the Barton County Sheriff’s Office said.
First responders were sent to an accidental electrocution call at 8:15 a.m. at the Great Bend Municipal Airport. A roofing company was working on the main hangar near the terminal building.
Mollins and Sanchez had been in a bucket on an aerial boom when they touched high-voltage power lines, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
Sanchez was able to get onto the roof of the hangar and then get down to the ground. Mollins was unresponsive in the bucket by 8:48 a.m. when authorities were able to get the power shut off and reach him.
Both men were taken to the Great Bend Regional Hospital. Mollins died at the hospital. Sanchez, who received serious burns, was then flown to a Wichita -area hospital, the sheriff’s office said.
“Because the accident occurred on city property and involved a city building, the Great Bend Police Department requested that the Sheriff’s Office handle the investigation,” a news release said.
Agencies that responded to the scene included the Barton County Sheriff’s Office, Great Bend Police Department, Great Bend Fire Department and Midwest Energy.
Great Bend, a city of just under 15,000 in Barton County, is roughly a two-hour drive northwest of Wichita.
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