A man is recovering from injuries he sustained when he was shocked after coming into contact with a live wire while working on a power pole south of Oak Harbor.

At approximately 1 p.m. Tuesday, the man, an employee of Potelco, was working on a project moving power poles near the intersection of Highway 20 and Waterloo Road.

A power line was somehow charged and severely shocked the man, said Marv Koorn, chief of North Whidbey Fire and Rescue.

A Potelco official had no immediate comment when asked to explain what happened, saying more information would be available next week.

When rescue workers arrived on scene, they found the man’s co-workers already administering CPR. Firefighter Matt VanGieson and Sheriff’s Deputy Lane Campbell rotated in and eventually firefighters and paramedics spent the next half hour performing CPR.

Campbell said the man was “clinically dead” when he arrived at the scene, not breathing and with no heart beat. “He had significant exit wounds on both his hand and his feet,” Campbell said. “His feet were where the electricity came out.”

Campbell went to work on he man and helped save his life. “It was a collective effort on a lot of people’s part,” he said. “He’s alive because of the efforts of many people.”

Eventually he was transported to Whidbey General Hospital and then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Koorn said the man is still alive and improving. The hospital would not comment due to privacy laws.

Koorn said firefighters, paramedics, troopers and deputies did an excellent job working together to save the man’s life.

Workers have been moving power poles farther away from the highway to make room for a widening project that begins next year. They started last month replacing 80 telephone poles south of Oak Harbor from Scenic Heights Road to Sidney Street.

The State department of Transportation is planning a $7.2 million project that will increase shoulder widths, add left turn lanes and a bus pullout south of Haga Road.