Update: Man electrocuted while installing metal roof in Bland

A Wythe County man working on a church roof in Bland on Tuesday morning was apparently electrocuted after contacting power lines.
According to police and other sources, 28-year-old Todd Ridgaway died while installing a metal roof on St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church across from the Bland County Courthouse.
Using a motorized lift to access the roof, Ridgaway and two other employees of Wythe County-based Ridgwood Contractors were working near power lines at approximately 9:20 a.m. on Tuesday when Ridgaway apparently contacted the lines.
One of the other workers, who refused treatment at the scene on Tuesday, apparently knocked Ridgaway from the lines with his feet.
Judy Cassell and Drema Harman, who work in the building across the street from the church, heard a commotion outside – “like tin falling”—on Tuesday morning and decided to investigate.
“The guy hollered at me and said ‘get me help,’” Cassell said.
Ridgaway, with the other two workers standing beside him, was lying in the bottom of the lift basket as first responders tried to get the lift started and lowered to the ground.
Bland County Rescue Squad members performed CPR on Ridgaway before loading him into an ambulance and taking him to Wythe County Community Hospital. Ridgaway appeared to be unresponsive the whole time.
Although the Bland County Sheriff’s Office responded to the accident and compiled an incident report, the death will likely be investigated by the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, which requires that work-related fatalities be reported within eight hours. A call to the agency’s Abingdon field office wasn’t returned by press time.
According to sources, Ridgaway was the son of Ridgwood Contractors owner Matthew Ridgaway.
—Staff report