RUMFORD – Erik Mawhinney, 23, was in fair condition Monday at the Massachusetts General Hospital burn unit.

Mawhinney was burned by electricity shortly before 10 a.m. on Saturday as he and his father, Joseph Mawhinney, 46, were cutting a tree on the elder Mawhinney’s property located off Route 108.

Joseph Mawhinney was killed by the electricity flowing through the power line when he was trying to help his son.

Police Sgt. Dan Garbarini said Monday afternoon that the elder Mawhinney was operating a backhoe while his son was cutting a tree. The tree was supposed to fall parallel to the power lines, but instead fell across them. He said the power flowed into the tree, then into Erik Mawhinney’s body when he touched it. The elder Mawhinney jumped from the backhoe to help his son.

Garbarini said apparently the electricity didn’t find a grounding in Erik’s body, but did find one in the elder Mawhinney’s body. It is not certain whether Joseph touched his son, the tree or both.

He said Rumford Hospital’s Dr. John Kroger was driving along Route 108 when the accident happened. Kroger performed CPR on Mawhinney, who was then taken by Med-Care Ambulance to Rumford Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Garbarini said most power lines carry 7,200 volts, but a Central Maine Power Co. representative told him the line that the tree fell on carried 19,900 volts to accommodate Irving’s Forest Products mill in Dixfield.