Man, 21, electrocuted cleaning up family's backyard in Burbank

BURBANK, Ill. (WLS) -- Nedal Doleh, 21, was electrocuted at his family's home in Burbank while cleaning up the backyard after Monday's storms.

"He was such a good brother. Just wanted to have a good life like everybody else - go to college, grow up, have a family," said Rozan Doleh, Nedal's sister. "He's gone now."

A live wire snapped and landed in the family's backyard in the 8600-block of South Meade Avenue during a severe storm on Monday. A neighbor recorded home video of the downed power line, showing sparks and fire. With power out in the neighborhood, the family thought it was safe to start cleaning up Tuesday afternoon.

"We thought all the time the electricity was off after almost 10 hours," said Youssef Doleh, Nedal's father. "Everything was off, totally off because it was sparking right in the night and it stopped."

The Doleh family said they spoke to a ComEd worker on their block moments before the 21-year-old died.

"They said it was safe - that we can go back there because we have a generator," said Sarah Doleh, Nedal's sister. "We went back there to turn it on."

Burbank police responded to the home around 2 p.m. Tuesday. Doleh was found unresponsive in the backyard. Police said he was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"We are very sorry to learn about this young man's passing," a ComEd spokesperson told ABC7 Eyewitness News. "We are working with local authorities to understand the circumstances around this unfortunate incident."

ComEd said as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, 87,000 customers are still without power. At the height of the outages, nearly 400,000 were affected.