A Chinese national working on the Booby Alley Housing Project has died after he was electrocuted on the job site on Wednesday morning.
The man, whose identity has not yet been released, reportedly came into contact with a live electrical line around 9am and was pronounced dead approximately two hours later.
Residents in the Point area said they witnessed the incident from outside the construction zone, describing the moment they saw “a little man drop” inside the gated premises. An ambulance was seen entering the compound shortly after.
Officials from the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) were not informed of the incident until hours later, according to Electricity Business Unit Manager Andre Matthias. He said the utility company was notified around 3pm and responded to assess the site.
“We journeyed to the site and the observation is that where the Chinese are building at Booby Alley, one of the blocks they were working on – they were on the third floor, and one gentleman had a metal pole in his hand while working, he actually touched the electrical wire, which was pretty close,” Matthias explained.
He noted that the power line in question had been installed prior to APUA being informed of the final location of the construction zone.
“The electrical line was recently put in there to provide electricity to the compound. At the time we installed the electricity service, there was no building, no construction had commenced; APUA would not have known exactly where on the different buildings, the work would take place. As it turns out, the line was fairly close to the building being constructed at the time,” he added.
Investigations into the incident are ongoing.
