A public works employee experienced an electric shock Monday morning at the town’s rented public works garage located at 137 North Branford Road and was taken to the hospital.
The details are sketchy but apparently the employee, a town mechanic, had a drop light on his extension cord and the cord got wet, setting off an electric shock, according to Shaun Heffernan, the acting fire chief.
The employee was standing on a wet floor, which can happen in a building that often floods. The public works building is located in a rental facility that has experienced numerous accidents, often connected to wet floors and flooding.
Rental Building Unsafe
Tom Brennan, the director of public works, told a board of finance budget meeting a year ago March that his rented building was unsafe because it floods. Slip and fall compensation claims are up, he said, adding that electrical cords add to the safety issue.
The public works department’s search for a new home over the last four years has been a major issue for the town, one that is still unresolved. Efforts by Unk Da Ros, the former first selectman and a building committee to place a new facility on the town-owned Tabor site ran into public opposition. Other sites were considered but did not materialize before DaRos retired from office. Click here to read the story.
First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove has told the Eagle he is looking at several sites for a new public works building, but he has not been specific on a possible location or when a decision will be made. A year ago Cosgrove asked the Board of Finance (BOF) for $7,500 to hire a consulting firm to review potential properties for a new public works building.
Public Works has been housed in a temporary rental space on Route 139 since its North Main Street facility was torn down in March 2011 to make way for the new Fire Headquarters.
In yesterday’s accident, the employee was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for what was believed to be a burn. His name was not disclosed.
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The man was Electrocuted. Not jolted. Its amazing how the powers that be are so quick to downplay incidents such as this when its not their life at stake. The building is a defunct wharehouse. And used as a repair garage its seriously unsafe on many levels.