‘Line workers are family’ | Lineman mourns 21-year-old killed in Fort Worth electrocution

Ryan Vargas is being remembered by those who worked beside him as a dedicated member of a tight-knit crew.

FORT WORTH, Texas — A 21-year-old lineman is being remembered by his crew as family after he was killed in an electrocution in South Fort Worth. 

One other lineman was injured during the incident, Fort Worth fire officials said. The exact cause of the incident hasn’t been released.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim who died as 21-year-old Ryan Vargas. 

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In an interview with WFAA, Chris Ritzer said he considered Vargas his little brother. Vargas trained with Ritzer for more than a year, and the two worked alongside each other almost daily. While they no longer worked for the same company, they remained close and spoke almost every week.

“Line workers are family,” Ritzer said.

Ritzer said the tight-knit nature of the job makes tragedies like this hit especially hard.

“It’s very important to us, no matter who it is, that’s part of us,” Ritzer said. “It affects all of us one way or another.” 

Ritzer said he learned about the accident through another lineman and immediately began calling hospitals, hoping Vargas had survived. That hope quickly turned into agony.

“Panic and heartbreak… all you do is run through what happened. What happened? What happened? What happened?” Ritzer said. “Ryan was one of those who was always there. He believed his job was to be there.”

He described Vargas as someone who brought a sense of calm and an uplifting spirit to the job, even in toughest moments.

The night before the accident, the two spoke by phone, ending the call the same way they always did.

“All I hear from the phone is, ‘All right, Chris… and all right, Ryan… and those were the last two words I spoke to him. If you believe in God, that was the goodbye I needed.”

The cause of the electrocution remains under investigation. The mentor said that, from what he understands, no one did anything wrong.

“He was not wrong. They were doing everything right… it was just an accident,” he said.

Questions still remain, especially with one victim still hospitalized.

“Yeah, I don’t think we’ll ever know,” he said. “The guy in the hospital is not 100%.”

Vargas, he said, stayed close to home to support his mother in Hillsboro, a widow. He was her only child.

“He chose to stay home and work to take care of his mom,” he said.

Ritzer launched a Gofundme to provide some support for Vargas’s mother. 

In the days since his death, his coworker said the loss continues to weigh on the entire crew. He has since gotten a tattoo in Vargas’ memory.

“I’ll never get over it,” he said. “Neither will my people, my crew.”

For a group bound by their work, the loss of one is felt by all.