Sheldon Howlett has lost track of the number of people he's educated about electrical safety during his 20 years as a line technician at North Carolina's Surry-Yadkin EMC. But one lesson sticks out: the time he helped a state trooper avoid a line contact on the scene of a car crash in a residential area.

The impact toppled a power pole and left a three-phase line suspended in the air. A nearby house was dark, and the trooper, assuming the power line was dead, ducked under the wire several times going back and forth from his cruiser.

“I said, 'Sir, you need to be careful. Everybody needs to stand back,'" Howlett recalls. “He was like, 'No, it's not dangerous. There are no lights on in the house.' Which was true—but the line was still energized. He assumed the whole line was out because of the one house."

Today, Howlett shares that close call story as the 28,000-member, Dobson-based co-op's safety coordinator—a role he moved into in 2018.

The new position has given him a platform to educate firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement personnel about the electrical hazards—like downed power lines, EV fires and backfeed—they might encounter after storms and accidents.

“Our first responders are special people, so we definitely want to watch out for them," he says. “A lot of times, they're the first ones after a storm to cut trees and clear roads. And they don't always see the lines that may be entangled under the trees."

Howlett collaborated with Surry Community College's Fire & Rescue Program on a series of trainings for first responders in 2022. Turnout for the first two sessions was so positive that the co-op has held about 10 more classes, drawing more than 140 first responders.

The idea to work with the community college came from Surry-Yadkin EMC Manager of Communications and Community Relations Wendy Wood, whose husband and son are volunteer firefighters. This year, they added trainings specifically for paramedics with Surry County Emergency Services.

“I had some personal connections with a couple of the instructors through my husband, and I knew some of them from previous work as a reporter and editor at a local newspaper group," Wood says.

The curriculum for the three-hour session incorporates national nonprofit Safe Electricity's seven-part training video series for first responders. Lineworkers perform pole-top rescue exercises, and students see images of the co-op's system and meters to familiarize themselves with grid infrastructure.

A tabletop high-voltage demo typically used at elementary schools also makes an appearance.

“We do safety for kids, but really the adults need it just as much, if not more," Howlett says.

Past students agree that all ages need instruction on electrical hazards.

“A lot of our folks have come, too, and said they really appreciated the course and just don't get enough of that information," says Surry County Emergency Services Training Officer Justin Jarrell.

Jarrell's biggest takeaway from the class he took earlier this year: maintaining situational awareness of potential electrical hazards.

“When our guys and gals get out on the scene, their first instinct is to jump in and save someone's life," Jarrell says. “But we have to check that, take precautions and maintain situational awareness at all times to protect ourselves and the victim. You want to treat all downed lines as if they're live."

Accessible, high-quality training fills another emerging need: Volunteers make up about 65% of the nation's firefighters, many of them in rural communities, according to the National Volunteer Fire Council. But in a trend similar to lineworkers, veteran firefighters are retiring and being replaced with less experienced hires.

“There's a lot of new people coming in all the time, and they really don't have that education, or it might be limited at best," Howlett says. “We want to be more supportive of the people we serve with accessible education. And a lot of them are member-owners, so we want to look out for them, as well."

Howlett says he's not aware of an electrical fatality involving a first responder—and he wants to keep it that way.

“I saw a lot of first responders in our area just not being aware and having a lot of close calls," he says. “They do us a service, and as a power provider, we need to do our best to protect them."