In the quiet hours of an early Tuesday morning, tragedy struck a west-side San Antonio neighborhood as a 32-year-old CPS Energy lineman was killed while attempting to restore electricity during storm-related outages. Clayton Kloesel, the lineman who lost his life, was reportedly working on a utility pole when an unsuspected power surge occurred, as stated by Bexar County Sheriff's Office. The San Antonio-based news outlet reported that although the workers believed the line was non-energized, the surge proved otherwise.
The incident took place on July 23, and by the evening, more than 6,000 customers were left without power due to the storm. Progress was made through the night, decreasing the count to about 3,200 without electricity by early morning and further down to approximately 850 a few hours later. Kloesel, a husband and father of three, was identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office and his death has since sparked both an outpour of community support and an investigation by CPS Energy.
KENS 5 revealed the close bond between Kloesel and his colleague Kyle Roberts, who described the harrowing moment he learned of the accident. "They hit the distress button and we heard it come over. I just got a feeling in my stomach," Roberts told KENS 5. According to him, all efforts to contact Kloesel were unanswered. Following the incident, Roberts and the local community gathered to provide support, creating a GoFundMe page which has since raised substantial funds for the grieving family.
Among those affected by the power outage was Chris Simmons, a resident of the impacted neighborhood, who expressed his gratitude towards Kloesel and his team. He highlighted the selflessness of such workers, stating to KENS 5, "We have a person who was here to help us, people who he didn’t even know. The crew, they had no idea we even existed other than there was a power outage." The lineman's service and ultimate sacrifice did not go unnoticed, and Kloesel is set to be honored at a funeral in La Vernia come Monday.
