A man who climbed a 200-foot electrical tower in Seattle electrocuted himself to death on the 120,000 volt line.
Witnesses say that they saw a flash of hot sparks coming from the tower that administers electricity across the Lake Washington Ship Canal in the Fremont neighborhood just before 1 a.m. Friday, and a body falling onto a platform.
The man's body was found there by the Seattle Fire Department after they received a call at about 12:30 a.m.-next to his lifeless limbs lay a hat and a cell phone.
There was no indication, however, as to why the man scaled the tower, department spokesperson Kyle Moore told the Washington Post.
No one on site knew the man's identity, either. The body has been taken to the King County medical examiner's office for determination of identification and cause of death.
Seattle police spokesperson Renee Witt acknowledged the mystery circling John Doe's death.
"We don't know why he climbed the tower," she said. "There's nothing to indicate it was something other than an accidental death from trespassing."
According to electric power utility company Seattle City Light, it was too dangerous at first for firefighters to scale the tower. They called a Snohomish County helicopter over for assistance, which saw the body sprawled out on the platform.
City Light shut down the power lines so that the fire fighters could assemble their technical rescue team and climb up to retrieve the body.
Officers had to climb around 150 feet off the ground to take John Doe down from the platform. They lowered him in a basket a little bit before 7 a.m.
Spokesperson Peter Clarke said it is now necessary for the city to make it almost impossible for a human being to climb the length of the tower.
"We're going to be reviewing that to see if we can make it less easy," he said.
