A Maine father is being hailed as a real-life hero after risking his own life to save his young son from a falling live power line during a violent storm that sounded “like a bomb going off.”
Scott Towers, a father of three from Wilton, Maine, was walking home with his wife and children on May 5 after visiting his brother nearby when the weather suddenly turned terrifying.
What started as a normal short walk through the Arkay Mobile Home Park quickly became a nightmare as fierce winds ripped through the neighborhood and utility poles began snapping overhead.
“I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve never experienced anything like the weather that had come through here,” Towers told local outlet WMTW.
The family feared a tornado was touching down.
“My wife told the kids to run home because we really thought it was a tornado coming through. It was that extreme,” he said.
Then came the horrifying moment that changed everything.
As power poles cracked above them, Towers spotted a sizzling live wire crashing directly toward his son. Without hesitating, the dad lunged forward and grabbed the line with his bare hands.
“I shoved him forward, and when I shoved him forward, the lines dropped right in front of me,” Towers recalled.
“The lines literally fell into my hands, and I just had to hold on to them because my son was right there.”
The electric shock immediately hurled him backward several feet.
“When I held on to them, it threw me backwards about four or five feet onto the ground, and I completely blacked out,” he said.
According to Towers, the electricity traveled through his hand and exited through his elbow. Neighbors who witnessed the terrifying scene said he collapsed to the ground and appeared lifeless.
His brother Dustin rushed to help and desperately performed chest compressions before finally managing to wake him up.
“I grabbed him by the head, and I shook him. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through,” Dustin said.
Towers was rushed to the hospital, where doctors treated him for his injuries. He was later released with a heart monitor and is still recovering from severe pain caused by the shock.
But despite the agony, the devoted dad says he would do it all over again without hesitation.
“It’s not necessarily that I went out of my way,” he explained. “I had to catch it, or it was going to land on my son, and there was no question about that.”
The rest of the family escaped with only minor cuts and bruises.
Meanwhile, electric crews in the area continue repairing storm damage and collapsed power lines left behind by the dangerous weather system that tore through the community.
God bless his brother for saving his life🙏❤️