Jul. 4--Fully juiced, Jacksonville's power lines carry more than 10 times the current of Old Sparky, the notorious execution chair.

Electricity flowing like that can explode into a 35,000-degree fireball -- hotter than the sun's surface -- with a hard hat and thick work shirt serving as a man's only defense.

JEA's line maintenance crew represents the front line in the ongoing battle to keep Jacksonville's power on. And with the tropical storm season lurking, the busy days of 2009 are nearly here.

Last year, during Tropical Storm Fay, constant outages had linemen double-shifting in the heavy rain and wind. Power restoration during the storm cost JEA $4 million. By comparison, the city-owned utility typically budgets $6 million to fix a whole year's worth of brownouts.

Apprentice Gary W. Lee Jr., 27, welcomed the workload.

Lee started the lineman apprentice program about a year ago. He said it seemed like a logical progression from his former job trimming trees. Plus it pays more.

"We worked a week of 17-hour days -- straight. We'd be out in the field the whole time," he said of the grueling Fay repairs.

"But I like to come to work because of the new challenges. Some factory workers know what they're going to do day in and day out. Here, it's always different."

Lee paused to talk as he worked with a crew replacing utility poles on Baymeadows Road in 90-degree heat. Sweat drenched his shirt as he stressed the importance of water and electrolytes.

Application process tough

It's tough work, but for a job that requires only a high school diploma to apply, it pays well. Apprentices earn $17 to $24 an hour.

There are 126 linemen working for JEA. Right now, it's an all-male crew, ranging in age from 18 to 56.

Wes Grant, who oversees JEA's linemen training, said women have served on the crews in the past, but there are usually few female faces in the crops of roughly 500 applicants who show up for orientation sessions when JEA is recruiting.

About half those applicants are eliminated from the pool after an entrance exam. More are weeded out later as the tests get physical.

Grant said the candidates are evaluated on how quickly they can dig holes and climb ladders before they take a ride in the bucket truck, which can extend up to 50 feet in the air.

That's one freak-out point.

Grant said a lot of applicants sign up, not realizing they're scared of heights. For others, the decision to quit comes when they realize the power lines they'd be working on in the field will be live, unlike the training models.

"Phase to phase, it can be 26,500 volts," Grant said.