Dalby roofer Lauchlan Tucker speaks out of 20,000 volt powerline strike

A young roofer suffered horrific burns after a metal batten he was carrying made contact with an overhead powerline that ought to have been disconnected. Now he is on a mission to raise awareness of the danger hanging over the heads of thousands of workers.

Dalby roofer Lauchlan Tucker suffered catastrophic burns after a metal batten he was holding struck an overhead powerline.

Simple tasks like watering the garden, preparing food or holding his daughter are a daily struggle for Lauchlan Tucker.

But this wasn’t always the case.

The self-confessed workaholic used to be a fit a man, who loved his six-day weeks as a roofer.

Sadly this came to an end while working at a Dalby construction site in December 2023, when he lifted a 7m metal batten and made contact with an overhead powerline that was supposed to be inert.

The strike sent about 20,000 volts through Lauchlan’s arms and out his legs.

“It arced out and it electrified me and the roof around me,” he said.

“It just about blew me off the roof and I was hanging by my leg.”

Lauchlan’s workmate poured water on his burns while they waited for paramedics to arrive. He woke up several days later in the burns unit of the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital at the start of a painful recovery.

“I had life support on, so I woke up with tubes in my mouth and freaked out,” he said.

“For a few months I lived with the thoughts of losing my arms, things would go good, then they would go bad.”

Lauchlan had to undergo extensive reconstruction surgery to repair his arms.

He endured 12 surgeries.

Doctors sewed Lauchlan’s arm to his stomach to grow extra skin needed for graft.

“They started taking bits and pieces from my body and started putting them everywhere,” he said.

After 12 surgeries and hundreds of hours of rehabilitation, Lauchlan is learning to use his arms again while he continues to suffer severe nerve pain.

“I couldn’t even pick my own daughter up when I was in hospital when she was only one year old,” he said.

“I can’t use a knife, I can’t cut anything, couldn’t tie my own pants.

“I had to learn how to do everything again.

“It’s been mentally tough, just trying to find something to do.

“I go to kick a ball with my daughter and I can’t.”

Through Shine Lawyers, Lauchlan is making a WorkCover claim to cover the cost of his rehabilitation, and to compensate for the loss of his future earnings.

“I used to be out all the time working and now I just stay home, I feel like I’m trapped in a big cage,” Lauchlan said.

Dalby roofer Lauchlan Tucker with his daughter.

It is highly unlikely that Lauchlan will return to his trade and he is warning other workers to pay attention to overhead power lines, even if they are told the lines are disconnected.

The Australian Institute of Health and Safety says there are more than 15,000 utility strikes each year. This number includes gas and water mains, and telecom lines.

In the past two decades more than 135 workers have died as a result of contact with overhead power lines. Hundreds more have been seriously injured.

“The year that it happened to me, I heard reports of another two and they both passed away. Since then there’s been a couple more,” Lauchlan said.

“I feel for those families simply because I had a bigger strike than all of them and I’ve turned out to be still here.

“As a roofer, we shouldn’t have to ‘look up and live’. I know that’s the saying, but in all reality a power line shouldn’t really be going over a roof.

“If a house is built correctly therefore the power line either goes to the house or around it.”

Originally published as Dalby roofer Lauchlan Tucker speaks out of 20,000 volt powerline strike