Our View: Worker's death is a tragedy

Bob Mitschke, a 36-year employee of NorthWestern Energy, was killed in an accident last week.

He was replacing a damaged transmission structure near Helena Thursday night when the accident happened. He died Friday.

Utility workers, just like firefighters and police officers, are the heroes who help restore order when it is lost.

Those of us on the Hi-Line are more aware than most of the value of electrical power. Because of various malfunctions we have been plunged into darkness for hours several times in recent years. We are more grateful than most of the great work utility repair people do when they restore power and let us continue on with our lives as normal.

The most recent and serious example in north-central Montana was the outage that occurred after the July 4 hail and wind storms.

The outage interrupted the holiday weekend for many NorthWestern utility workers and those of other utility suppliers.

By the next day, power was restored to nearly all parts of the Hi-Line thanks to their hard work.

By working under such tough conditions as those seen during the July 4 weekend, utility workers put their lives in danger for the good of the community.

We appreciate their work, and are saddened by the tragic death of Bob Mitschke. We express our condolences to his family and co-workers.