WEST FORSYTH – Two workers sustained severe burn injuries Wednesday morning in west Forsyth after being electrocuted by a crane that made contact with live wires, and several thousand homes and businesses were temporarily left without power.

Both adult males were flown to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta with “severe life-threatening” injuries after the 9 a.m. accident off Drew Campground Road, Forsyth County Fire Department Division Chief Jason Shivers said.

They were part of a crew framing a house, and the crane was being used to lift the trusses into place.

The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is reportedly on the scene.

Power was knocked out to much of northwest Forsyth for about 25 minutes, spanning Drew Campground and Post roads to Canton Highway (Hwy. 20), according to Blake House, vice president of member services for Sawnee EMC, the Cumming-based electric services cooperative that provides power to much of Forsyth County.

The men were not employed by Sawnee EMC.

“They were doing their own work out there and happened to come in contact with the transmission line,” House said.

A transmission line is “much larger than a standard distribution line that runs up the side of the road,” he said.

House said that specific line carries 115,000 volts.

Online editor Jim Dean contributed to this report.