Derek Neary
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Apr 30/99) - "It only takes half an amp to kill you."

Those precautionary words came from Northwest Territories Power Corporation senior linesman and acting area supervisor Wayne LeBlanc during safety presentations to Bompas and Thomas Simpson school students last week.

LeBlanc showed the students two safety videos, "Louie the Lightning Bug" and "Electro-Juice."

"That was cool," several students said in unison after the second video, based on a Beetle-Juice theme.

Then LeBlanc brought out the heavy artillery, the "Hamlet Hazard." It's a three-dimensional display board representing a miniature community where several figurines are in precarious predicaments. Each of them, such as the girl who uses a fork to get her toast unstuck from the toaster, winds up getting a shock. Practically any home appliance generates enough power to kill you, he said.

Others who get jolted include a woman with an electric lawnmower who runs over the cord and a man who uses a pole to test the depth of the pool water but accidentally strikes power lines in the process.

LeBlanc asks why the man gets a shock. He hardly completes the question before a few students blurt out, "He's a conductor!"

"That's right," LeBlanc replies, explaining that electricity always wants to find the quickest route to ground and humans are almost always grounded. So don't be fooled by the bird that can sit atop a power line and not get electrocuted, he warns the students.

"That's the golden rule of electricity, don't be on the ground and touch electricity. It will burn a hole in you," he said, adding that standing on a ladder while coming into contact with electricity is just as bad because the ladder will complete the link to the ground.

In addition, the human body is made up of mostly water and electricity is attracted to water, he said.

Among the other safety tips from the presentation were:

• never use radios around baths or showers
• don't climb trees or fly kites near power lines
• always avoid downed power lines
• observe and obey "high voltage" and "Keep out; Danger" signs
• don't dig holes or trenches without inquiring about buried cable lines

The presentations, which lasted an hour for each class, made an impression on the teachers as well as the students.

"I think it's important," said Grade 4 teacher Val Gendron. "What I like is that there's someone from the community coming in and telling them this -- not just us as teachers telling them all this safety stuff."

Parents, too, have approached LeBlanc in the street to let him know that his efforts have made an impact.

"They say to me, 'I never learned so much about electricity from my kids in my life,'" he said. "That's the reward."

LeBlanc began the presentations last year following an incident in the region where a child was nearly electrocuted. He said he has the full support of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and has even provided consultation to fellow Power Corp. employees in other areas so they too can begin safety presentations in their respective communities.