Electricians Schooling Kids in the Powerof Electricity

When line electrician Tim Marquardt pressed the toy figurine to the electrically charged model car on Thursday, the results weren’t pretty.
Electricity flowed from the car through the toy figure and lit up a darkened John Muir Middle School classroom. The demonstration was enough to make some students gasp.

Marquardt used an electrical display board charged at 14,000 volts several times during a presentation on electric safety. Line electricians Marquardt and Keith Kind of Wisconsin Public Service traveled to nine central Wisconsin schools this month to teach students how to be safe around overhead and underground electric lines.

Kind and Marquardt also ran a slideshow with photos of vehicle crashes with downed power lines and other incidents involving electricity.

“There’s a lot of hazards out there,” Kind said. “Electricity’s safe to use but you have to respect it.”

Seventh-grader Cole Kubisiak heard the safety message loud and clear during the presentation. Wires are always energized, so steer clear of them when they hit the ground, Cole, 12, said.

For more on this story, read Tuesday's print and online editions of the Wausau Daily Herald.