Earlier this month, APCo lineworker Chanze Gilbert got a call about a power outage in Mason County, West Virginia. It was just a few days after Winter Storm Fern, and there was still snow and ice on the ground. 

Gilbert suspected the outage was caused by a blown fuse, and he figured it would be an easy, uneventful fix. He certainly didn’t expect to save someone’s life that night, but that’s exactly what happened. 

After fixing the fuse, Gilbert took in his surroundings. There was a house to his right and a camper to his left. The house had electricity. 

“But, whenever I looked to my left, I saw a camper door open,” Gilbert said. “And I was like, ‘That's kind of weird, as cold as it is. Why would there be a camper door open?’” 

It had been below zero degrees Fahrenheit, multiple nights in a row that week. 

As Gilbert walked closer to the camper, he saw a man, lying in the doorway, with half of his body on the snowy ground. 

“When I saw him, his hands were really blue, and his face was really blue,” Gilbert said. “And I asked him, ‘You know, are you okay?’ And he just kind of looked at me and shook his head. But he wasn't shivering like people normally do when they’re cold.” 

When people experience severe hypothermia, they stop shivering and become rigid and unresponsive. Gilbert started panicking and called 911, and the dispatcher sent an EMS squad over within two minutes.

The man couldn’t walk, get up or move at all. So Gilbert, the EMS team and two men from the local fire department worked together to get him in an ambulance. That was particularly difficult due to the recent winter weather and the place the man had fallen.

“The way that the camper was situated and the way the steps were, it was going to be really hard to maneuver him with just a couple people,” Gilbert said. “We also had to move him across his yard and over a little homemade bridge, when there was still ice and snow on the ground.” 

Once the man was taken to the ambulance, he was safely transported to the hospital and treated for hypothermia and frostbite. Although the man’s injuries were severe and he faces a long road to recovery, Gilbert’s actions absolutely saved his life. The man likely would have died within hours if Gilbert hadn’t found him. 

After the man reached the hospital, Gilbert got more information. The man used a gas stove to heat his camper and ran out of heat three days before Gilbert found him. Then he fell in the doorway while trying to leave the camper. 

“He had been laying there for two days,” Gilbert said. “And when they took his body temperature in the hospital it was about 80 or 81 degrees.” 

Gilbert also saved another life while on the job several years ago. Back in 2021, he and his coworker spotted smoke coming from a backyard in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. When they went to investigate, they found a flaming doghouse with a terrified pup still chained to it. A heat lamp had fallen over and ignited some straw that the owners were using to keep the doghouse warm. 

“I jumped a barbed wire fence and cut the dog's collar off,” Gilbert said. “And then another guy ran and got a fire extinguisher and threw it over the fence to me and put the dog back in the house.” 

Gilbert’s favorite part of being a lineworker is serving his community. During Winter Storm Fern, his life was essentially work and sleep, as he repeatedly clocked 16 hour days restoring power. 

“I love the sense of pride and accomplishment you get from helping people, helping your community,” Gilbert said.  “Whenever you know it's kind of a time crunch, you want to get the lights on as fast as possible, but as safe as possible at the same time.”