A veteran electrician is recovering from an accident at a broadcast plant in California.
The CGC Communicator newsletter carried a report this week that Jim Cook of Smith Electric had been hurt. It quoted Ron Russ, director of engineering and MIS of SBS Los Angeles:
“On Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008, at about 1 p.m. while working on KLAX’s main transmitter site’s standby generator Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS), there was an explosion,” Russ wrote. “The probable cause was an electrical short circuit.
“Our electrician (James Cook), while working on the ATS, had a large capacity wire in his hands that possibly arced to ground, causing the blast,” Russ continued.
“He was thrown about 15 feet from the ATS, suffered third-degree burns to his hands and first-degree burns to his face. I was able to get him to the bottom of Flint Peak where Glendale Fire Department paramedics treated him and subsequently transported him to Huntington Memorial’s Trauma unit. He has since been transferred to the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks where doctors informed him he will have to undergo multiple skin grafts.”
