| A young Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) trainee was rushed to a city hospital yesterday morning after receiving electrical shocks, while carrying out repairs on a utility pole in the Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara area.Up to press time, the employee whose name was given as Dexter Persaud, was receiving treatment for severe burns to his hands, at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.Eyewitnesses said that had it not been for the young man’s presence of mind, the situation could have been much worse.Reports are that sometime around 10:30 hours yesterday, a crew of employees from the power company, including Persaud, was carrying out maintenance work when the incident occurred.One of Persaud’s colleagues explained that the injured man was attempting to disconnect the ‘spur’ wire which is attached to a main line.“The spur wire is attached to the main wire and,Cheap Mens Adidas Basketball Shoes, so he was trying to disconnect the power from the spur wire…but somehow like current feed through some other outlet and shocked him.”The man was immediately rushed to hospital.Residents of the community recalled seeing Persaud hanging from the pole in a precarious position until he was freed by his colleagues.“Like when the current hit he, he manage fuh loose off and hang on by the strap around he waist,” one resident told this newspaper.The GPL’s intervention was as a result of a wire which had become severed and was dangling dangerously on the parapet in front of a shop in the village.Kwesi Sampson,Cheap NBA Jerseys Wholesale, the shop owner, recalled that around 04:30 hours, he was awakened by a loud noise and after switching off his main he ventured outside to see what was happening.He was shocked to see one of the main electrical wires dangling on the ground in front of his shop.Sampson told this newspaper that he called the Fire Service and GPL.However,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, only the Fire Service responded in a timely manner.“The Fire Service came like about minutes to five and GPL come like about two hours after. The live wire was burning all the time and bore some hole in the concrete,Cheap NFL Jerseys,” Sampson recalled.He said that when the fire service arrived,Jerseys NFL Cheap, there was nothing they could have done since any application of water would have had disastrous consequences.“They said they couldn’t do anything,Wholesale China Jerseys, they just been on standby.”The businessman said that when workers from the GPL finally arrived, they could not immediately locate the connection to shut off the electricity.It was not until searching through a section of the community that they eventually managed to shut off the power.Sampson could not say however what might have been the cause for Persaud’s incident.He recalled seeing the employee on the pole but only learnt that he had been shocked when he saw his workers lifting him into a vehicle to take him to the hospital.Another resident opined that the workers were very unprofessional in their approach to the task they embarked on.“Imagine they could not find the connection fuh turn off de current, but when yuh owe dem dey could find yuh quick fuh cut off yuh light,” one resident remarked.A source at the GPL told this newspaper that an investigation will certainly be launched to ascertain what went wrong that led to the entire episode. |
