Last Updated on December 2, 2025 2:51 pm
Lenoir, North Carolina (December 2, 2025) – Line technicians raced against the clock – and their peers – at the 2025 Pole Top Rescue held at Nash Community College where Austin Story, a crew leader in the cooperative’s Watauga district, scored 4th among linemen from across the state competing in a timed demonstration of lifesaving skills.
During the competition, each line worker executed a rescue scenario of retrieving an unconscious coworker from atop a utility pole. Each competitor, dressed in full climbing gear of up to 20 pounds, is judged on their swiftness and proficiency in radioing for help, scaling 20 feet up a utility pole, lowering a weighted mannequin and beginning CPR.
To advance to the state competition, each of the competitors had to win a similar rescue event against their peers at their local electric cooperative.
“Our lineworkers undergo intense training to ensure they’re ready to respond to any call, no matter the situation,” said Renee Walker, director of public relations. “This competition puts their safety and rescue skills to the test while also recognizing the dedication it takes to maintain the lines that power the lives of electric cooperative members.
“Every line technician hopes to never have to use this method of rescue,” Walker added. “That’s exactly why this event is so important – it brings competition into a scenario that we hope our line technicians never need to use yet gives the confidence that they could do it quickly if something like this ever does occur.”
The biennial competition is hosted by North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives with members of its training and safety team serving as judges. All North Carolina electric cooperative lineworkers must complete this same scenario in less than five minutes to maintain their certification to work on co-op power lines.
Blue Ridge Energy serves some 80,000 members across western North Carolina in the counties of Watauga, Caldwell, Ashe, Alleghany, Avery, Alexander and Wilkes. Learn more at BlueRidgeEnergy.com.
Blue Ridge Energy’s Austin Story placed 4th in a statewide line technician competition designed to demonstrate swift response in emergency lifesaving situations.
