11,000 VOLT SHOCK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23029, 5 May 1938, Page 14

11,000 VOLT SHOCK

POWER STATION ACCIDENT MAN receives burns UNCONSCIOUS WHEN RESCUED An employee at the Arapuni electric power station came into contact with an 11,000-volt conductor yesterday afternoon. He was Mr. James Birse, aged 32, married, of Arapuni, and after treatment at the > power house he was taken in a St. John ambulance to the Waikato Hospital, Hamilton. The protecting gates of the steel frameworks which surround high-tension apparatus are kept locked when the gear is but where Mr. Birse was cleaning an insulator the current had been cut "off. Apparently, however, he entered by mistake the gates of a cubicle in which the apparatus was connected, receiving a severe shock. His plight was seen immediately and he was removed from the cubicle in an unconscious condition. The St. John ambulance officer at the station gave first-aid and Mr. Birse later received attention from Dr. G. C. MacDiarmid, of Putaruru, before being taken to the Waikato Hospital. He was unconscious for about 15 minutes, having received burns on both arms, the right shoulder and the right leg. He is suffering from shock and his condition is reported to be fairly serious.