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GPL investigates suspected electrocution
The Guyana Power and Light Incorporated (GPL) is investigating if a contracted employee was carrying out authorised work when he fell to his death from an electricity pole on Monday afternoon.
Edward Desmond Phillips, called ‘Junior’ or ‘Shawn’, was reportedly electrocuted when he was effecting work on an electricity pole in the village of Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara. He was an employee of the Williams Electrical Services.
When contacted yesterday, an official from the power company confirmed that Williams Electrical Services is contracted by the GPL, but the official could not say if at the time, Phillips was performing an authorised job.
The GPL official referred this newspaper to the contracted firm for any further information. However efforts to make contact with the entity were futile.
Meanwhile, Divisional Commander of the Police East Coast Demerara Division, Assistant Commissioner Gavin Primo DSM, told this newspaper that Phillips, of Hughes Street, Golden Grove, was seen on an electricity pole around 17:00 hours. The Commander said that Phillips fell to the ground and was seen bleeding through his nose and frothing at the mouth.
According to a police source, initial investigations point to the fact that Phillips was operating alone. The source surmised that although Phillips was an employee of Williams Electrical Services, a firm that is contracted by the GPL to conduct disconnections and reconnections, he most likely was acting in an unauthorised capacity.
“First of all, it is unlikely that he would have been working alone if he was on authorised duty,” the source noted.
Kaieteur News was told that Phillips was picked up by public-spirited persons after he fell from the pole around 17:30 hours.
The police source also questioned the time of the work that was being carried out by Phillips, arguing that it is not the norm for such jobs to be done after 17:00 hours.
But according to a resident, Phillips and two of his colleagues were indeed seen carrying out official duties after 17:00 hours. “I looked at the time and asked, ‘What GPL doing in here after five?’”
The resident said that it is not unusual for GPL contractors to be seen carrying out work at that time.
Meanwhile, Geneva Phillips, the wife of the dead man, told this newspaper that she was at her sister’s home when she received the tragic news.
“I got a message, (asking) if I knew what had happened to Shawn, and I said ‘no’. Then somebody said that he fell from a (electricity) pole and was taken to the hospital. I took a taxi immediately and went to the hospital,” the woman said.
Edward Phillips called Junior
However, by the time she arrived there, her husband had already been pronounced dead.
According to Mrs. Phillips, her husband had previously been an employee with the power company before seeking employment with the contracting firm, Williams Electrical Services. She said that he was planning to quit his job in the next two weeks to work in the interior.
“I feel like any other wife with children,” Geneva Phillips said when asked how she was coping with the tragic loss of her husband. She informed that they were about to relocate from her mother’s house to a place of their own when the tragedy struck.
A post mortem examination on Phillips body is to be conducted today.
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