A worker is critically ill with burns to about 40 per cent of his body after being hit by a fireball in a freak accident on a Fanling hillside yesterday.
The man, 62, was one of two men injured by the fireball. The incident happened when a steel cable supporting a load of cement being carried by a helicopter hit a high-voltage power line.
The other man, 61, suffered minor burns to his face and was in a stable condition last night.
The fireball sent a group of workers scurrying when the cable hit the line at 3pm.
Witnesses said it landed on top of the critically injured man.
Senior Fanling fire station officer Hui Kwai-kin said a helicopter from Heliservices was lifting a load of cement to the CLP Power work site at Kau Lung Hang Lo Wai off Tai Wo Service Road West in Fanling.
'The cable hit the 132,000-voltage overhead power line, creating an electric arc or fireball when the load touched the ground,' he said. 'A worker told me that the fireball was very bright and huge. It was about seven metres above the ground and right above the two victims.