Jodi Lane, 30, was crossing East 11th Street near Veniero's Pastry Shop around 6:20 p.m. when her two pets started "freaking out" and looked like they were attacking each other, witnesses said.

Lane, who lived around the corner on East 12th Street, feverishly tried to separate the dogs.

She then screamed for help from passers-by and employees of the pastry shop.

"The dogs were fighting and making a lot of noise," said Jacob King, 21, who works the cash register at Veniero's. "She was trying to separate them. The dogs were making a horrible noise and growling and snorting loudly."

A woman, who identified herself only as Meg, said she tried to help, but realized Lane and her dogs had been hit by a jolt of electricity.

"At first I thought she had gotten bit by the dog, but then I realized she had been electrocuted," she said. "They were all being electrocuted."

King said Lane suddenly "fell down" and stopped moving. "She never got up," he said.

"She was just lying in the gutter motionless," said witness Robert Zerilli. "You would never think something like this could happen to anyone."

Police and firefighters arrived minutes later, but, fearing they'd be electrocuted themselves, were reluctant to touch her.

A female police officer suffered an electrical shock when she got too close. The officer was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where she spent the night.

Witnesses said it was 25 minutes before EMS workers began trying to resuscitate Lane.

She was taken to Beth Israel Hospital, where she was declared dead at 7:30 p.m.

Lane may have been zapped by a bunch of uninsulated wires when she tried to separate the dogs and was electrocuted by a surge that traveled through them, cops said.

A police source said a neighborhood resident took the dogs to a private veterinarian and then to his apartment.

City streets hold many so-called "hot spots" - ground-level utility boxes where underground power lines meet.

Salt and other corrosives often erode the insulation in and around the boxes - and salt-laced snow and slush are a potent conductor of electricity.

Con Edison spokesman Chris Olert said the company is looking into what happened.

"We're checking out if there were currents involved," he said.

Lane's landlord, John Black, said Jodi was a "beautiful person" who moved into the building a year ago with her boyfriend, Alex.

"She was a very pleasant person," he said. "Everything you could say about this girl is positive."

Black said Jodi and Alex held rooftop parties in the summer and invited all the tenants.

"Everyone is shocked," he said. "All the tenants called me up crying about this."