Electricocution in Salt Lake area

[ryan_618]

A fault in wiring likely led to death
Fatal accident: Bountiful teen was electrocuted while plugging in a dryer
By Michael N. Westley
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune


The small kitchen in the basement apartment at 505 Center St. in Bountiful looks like any other kitchen where tenants are moving in - boxes of trash sit next to those filled with cleaning supplies and other household items. Pieces of a kitchen table wait to be reassembled.
But the owners of these items are not there. The two young men who were heading out on their own had their adventure cut short Monday night, when one - Chris Johnson - was electrocuted as he was plugging in their dryer.
For Johnson, who changed his name from Chris Findley several years ago by taking his stepfather's name, the future looked bright. The Bountiful High School graduate had picked up the keys to his first apartment on Saturday, moved in his belongings with his roommate, Tyson Peters, on Sunday and had reported to his new job as a hod tender for a brick masonry company on Monday.
Peters, 19, and Johnson, 18, had been planning the move for a long time, Peters said.
"We were waiting for him to graduate and start a new job," said Peters.
With the help of friend Chase Breinholt, the men went shopping for groceries Monday night and returned to the apartment around 8 p.m. Peters went to the kitchen to put the table together, Breinholt went to get some items out of a car and Johnson headed for the small utility room.
"As I was putting the top piece [of the table] on, I was yelling for Chris to come help me. I figured he didn't hear me, so I went in there to get him. That's when I found him on the dryer," Peters said.
Johnson was alone in the utility room for about five minutes before he was discovered by Peters, who ran outside to find Breinholt for help.
"I had to pull him off the dryer because we didn't know what else to do," Breinholt said. "I tried CPR for a little bit, but the ambulance got there really fast. . . . He was already dead."
Investigators believe that a basic wiring error caused the fatal accident. A faulty socket electrified the dryer once it was plugged into the wall. Johnson leaned on the dryer and placed a hand on a metal natural gas pipe and completed the circuit, sending electricity through his body, according to Lt. Steve Gray of Bountiful Police.
The home's previous occupant, Stephen Shurtleff, died three weeks ago at the age of 61. Shurtleff had hired someone to remodel the basement apartment, according to Shurtleff's son, Paul Shurtleff. The home currently belongs to a family trust.
Gray said criminal charges are unlikely; police would have to show criminal negligence.
"It was probably somebody who wanted to save a few bucks by wiring it themselves," he said. "They flip-flopped two wires, basically."
Bountiful City temporarily condemned the home. Building inspectors checked out the house for other code violations. Gray said until the house is safe, no one will be living there.
"My father would never do this intentionally. He hired someone who did a bad job," said Paul Shurtleff.
Peters said he is moving back with his parents.
"I'm going to miss him," he said. "He was fun to have around." Peters said Johnson was often the life of the party.
"He always had stories that would make us laugh so hard," Peters said.
Johnson is remembered by Bountiful High School's Assistant Principal Steve Hill as a "polite, nice kid." He remembered him as unpretentious, dependable and hardworking.
Many teachers first learned of Johnson's death at a faculty meeting on Wednesday.
"We're a small school and community. It has definitely had an impact," Hill said.
The gravity of Johnson's death was felt by the school principal Ryck Astle.
"You see an 18-year-old kid taken in a tragic way like this and you don't know what to expect next," he said.
Johnson's death was the second for students and staff of Bountiful High School this summer. Marion Toko, 16, died July 19 after being struck by lightning at a West Valley City park.
Services for Johnson will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Russon Brothers Bountiful Mortuary, 295 N. Main St., Bountiful. Contributions can be made to the Christopher Johnson Fund at any Zions Bank.
mwestley@sltrib.com
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Tribune reporter Matt Canham contributed to this report.

 

[jimwalker]

Re: Electricocution in Salt Lake area

sad to say the least
Do hope they investigate as to who did wiring.

 

[charlie b]

Re: Electricocution in Salt Lake area

Thanks, Ryan, for sharing the story. Tragedies are, well, tragic. But the more people who can read about a tragedy, the less likely it becomes that the event will happen again.

 

[hurk27]

Re: Electricocution in Salt Lake area

That reminds me of a range that a appliance installer wired a cord to. when he plugged in the cord it exploded in a shower of sparks "as the home owner described it" of course he immediately tried to blame us but when we got there we had to show the home owner where he reversed one of the hots and the neutral (four-wire) he did have the grounding conductor connected to the grounding terminal and it was this connection that caused the short. and if he had removed the bonding it would have sent 240 volts through the appliance. But he wasn't there as he had to go to the Emg room from the arc flash burns on his hand. a good idea not to have the breaker turned on when plugging in or removing 240 volt cord's. If this was a three-wire circuit the same thing would have happened as the frame of the range would have been hot unless the gas pipe was bonded. but even if the gas line was bonded, think about if the flexible hook up gas line were to burn through.

Of course the latter is on a range with a electric oven and a gas cook top.

[ August 19, 2004, 07:38 PM: Message edited by: hurk27 ]

 

[physis]

Re: Electricocution in Salt Lake area

I worked for company that fired a man for leaving an MC cable snipped off at the end, not terminated and energized in a commercial suspended ceiling. This left the entire length of MC sheathing energized. An employee in the building was working in the ceiling to install a TV in a meeting room. He ended up in the hospital and nobody was told much more than that about it.

There's a lot that could be said about things like this.