Engineer’s electrocution blacks out Panay and Negros

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – The 30-minute blackout that hit the islands of Negros and Panay on Friday morning was triggered by the electrocution of an engineer employed by a subcontractor of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.

Zosimo Briones, NGCP-Negros district head, said Saturday that the power outage experienced in Northern and Central Negros Occidental and Panay at 9:38 a.m. occurred when a steel tape measure being used by engineer Jorey Failaban of AAB Contractor touched a high-voltage circuit breaker on the power line in Mabinay, Negros Oriental, tripping off the NGCP Mabinay and Kabankalan substations.

The engineer was measuring the dimensions for the frame of high-voltage equipment when he was electrocuted, Briones said.

Failaban was rushed to the Silliman University Medical Center in Dumaguete City where he was described to be in critical condition, Briones said.

Failaban’s company, AAB Contractor, was awarded a contract by NGCP to replace old high-voltage circuit breakers at the Mabinay, Amlan and Bacolod City substations of the power firm, Briones explained. –Carla Gomez, Inquirer Visayas