A 39-year-old Santa Monica man was electrocuted and died Wednesday when he cut through a clogged sewer pipe.
The accident occurred at 11:37 a.m. at an office building located at 1024 Pico Boulevard. Santa Monica Fire Department paramedics pronounced the unidentified man dead at the scene.
The electrocution was witnessed by several of the man’s co-workers. They say the plumber was cutting through a pipe that was contributing to a clogged sewer. When water spewed from the pipe after being cut, the man was touching electrical wires. Apparently, he was lying on the floor where the wires were. When his belt buckle touched the wire, he was electrocuted. Witnesses say the man yelled out ‘electricity’ before collapsing dead.
The office where the man was working, Intestinal Fitness, was being remodeled. The complex where the accident occurred, which houses eight individual business offices, will be without electricity for two days, said Blair Brandenburg, who works at nearby Network Solutions International.
“It’s horrific,” he said, adding he was joking with the plumber just two days ago.
California Occupational Safety and Health Office investigators were on scene Wednesday afternoon, along with Santa Monica Police forensics officers, gathering evidence and taking photographs.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 1, 2002. Read the original PDF.