A power line fell on Slabua parked car in northeast Portland, Oregon Wednesday, killing three people and injuring a baby during an ice storm that led to myriad road closures and power outages.
Shortly before noon, dispatchers started receiving frantic calls about a downed power line and people appearing to be electrocuted. A branch had fallen on a power line, causing it to fall onto an SUV, Portland Fire & Rescue said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.
As the situation unfolded, a resident grabbed the baby from one of the people lying on the street in a bid to save its life, according to the statement.
The three people killed, two adults and one teenager, were found dead upon the firefighters' arrival at the scene. The baby was taken to a hospital for a full medical evaluation.
According to the fire department, there was no water applied to any potential car fire as no flames were present and the vehicle was evaluated by the members present and deemed safe from fire danger. The power company later deenergized the line, the statement said.
Portland Fire & Rescue said in the statement they believe the victims were electrocuted upon exiting the car.
Weekend weather forecast:Deep freeze to return to eastern half of US after lull; heavy ice in Pacific Northwest
According to the Statesman Journal, a USA TODAY network newspaper located in Salem, Oregon, there were about 43,500 customers without power Wednesday afternoon following the storm Tuesday night.
The largest number of those without power were in the Eugene area, where there were over 21,000 outages, according to the Eugene Water & Electric Board.
Portland General Electric said Wednesday nearly 9,000 of its customers were without power across its service area, mostly in the Portland metro area.
Most school districts in the Mid-Valley region were either opening late or closed on Thursday.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert told USA TODAY Wednesday that an ongoing storm in the Pacific Northwest will bring "some major ice to Portland and Seattle."
The weather service said high snowfall rates and blowing snow are possible and widespread winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories went in effect on Wednesday.
Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY; Zach Urness, Salem Statesman Journal
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