Volunteer construction worker injured by power line

A construction worker was critically injured Saturday morning when he came into contact with a high-voltage electrical line at the corner of East Meadowlane Road and U.S. Highway 195. Assistant Spokane Fire Chief Brian Schaeffer said the man was working in an elevated basket about 8:40 a.m. when, while the basket was in motion, his head came into contact with a 6,700-volt wire. Another occupant of the basket was able to lower it so paramedics could treat the injured worker. “As far as I know, he is doing just fine,” said Willie Eichmann of Laborers for Christ, a group of retirees who volunteer to build Missouri Synod Lutheran churches around the country. He said the injured worker, Mark Munderloh, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to make sure he had no internal injuries after it was determined at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane that his burns weren’t life-threatening. Eichmann said Munderloh is a “full-time RVer” from Texas. Munderloh and others in the group were working on the roof fascia of the new St. John’s Lutheran Church when the accident happened, Eichmann said. Laborers for Christ expects to have the building, which replaces one at Third and Division, ready by Christmas, Eichmann said.