INDEPENDENCE, IA – On Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at approximately 10:45 am, the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 report of a male individual that had been electrocuted while trimming a tree in the 200 blk South Street W in Hazleton. Sheriff’s Deputies and emergency personnel were immediately dispatched. According to the investigation, Gregory Thomas Brandt, 51, of Fairbank, was utilizing a boom lift to cut down a tree in the 200 blk South Street West in Hazleton when he came into contact with an overhead power line.
Brandt was pronounced dead at the scene. This incident remains under investigation. The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by the Hazleton Fire Department, Oelwein MercyOne Ambulance Service, Oelwein Police Department, Iowa State Patrol, Buchanan County Medical Examiner personnel and Alliant Energy crews.