13 electrocutions, few answers - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

13 electrocutions, few answers

Halliburton KBR improperly installed electrical wiring or failed to fix known electrical hazards at U.S. bases in Iraq that resulted in the deaths of 11 service members and two civilians, family members and former employees of the contracting giant testified at a Congressional hearing.

Electrical hazards in showers, swimming pools and work spaces have killed 10 soldiers, one Marine and two civilian contractors since 2003.

Sen. Robert Casey, D-Penn., expressed frustration that the latest electrocution, which caused the death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth on Jan. 2, 2008, occurred four years after an Army Corps of Engineers report warning that these electrical hazards on bases were a “killer of soldiers.”

“That’s October 2004 and we are sitting here in 2008 and we are still talking about this,” Casey said, describing his disgust that Maseth, a Special Forces soldier, lost his life while taking a shower in his barracks in Baghdad. “That’s an abomination.”

Maseth’s mother, Cheryl Harris, testified at the Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing, telling lawmakers that she has learned that KBR found the electrical hazard during an inspection of her son’s barracks 11 months before his death. She listed deficiencies such as that “the building’s main circuit panel, the secondary feeder panel and the water tank were not grounded.” In addition, the “wiring leading into the secondary electrical panel was not sized properly for the main [circuit] breakers, did not have proper thermal coating and did not meet U.S. or British electrical codes.”

Harris became upset, her voice quivering several times during her description of how her son “lay in electrified water until he was discovered by a fellow soldier who kicked the door down. There, lying on the ground, was my son’s body, burnt and smoldering,” she said. “One of the soldiers who attempted to rescue Ryan was himself severely shocked because the electrical current was still running through the water and pipes in Ryan’s bathroom.”

The hearing, “Contractor Misconduct and the Electrocution Deaths of American Soldiers in Iraq,” was the 17th before the committee on alleged waste, fraud and corruption by large contracting firms hired to provide services to troops overseas.

KBR officials were invited to the hearing but did not attend. In an e-mailed statement, a KBR representative said the company’s investigation so far has not turned up evidence of a link between its work and the electrocutions.

“We continue to conduct technical inspections on all facilities serviced by KBR throughout Iraq to ensure safe and proper operations for those we serve,” spokeswoman Heather Browne said in the statement.

In a written response to several questions Casey raised on the issue during an April 8 hearing, Gen. David Petraeus, commanding general of Multinational Forces-Iraq, said the 13 electrocution deaths in Iraq “occurred under the following circumstances: five died from contact with power distribution lines, two installing communications equipment, two performing maintenance on generators, two taking a shower, one while power-washing equipment and one while swimming. The only two events that occurred inside billeting facilities (both while taking a shower) were on different bases in Iraq and occurred 3½ years apart (May 2004 and January 2008).”

Petraeus also stated in the response that the Defense Contract Management Agency “has directed KBR to implement a theater-wide, full technical inspection of all maintained facilities where no prior inspection was performed. Additionally, DCMA directed KBR to perform life, health and safety inspections on all other maintained buildings to begin necessary repairs.”

But Debbie Crawford, an experienced electrician and former KBR employee, questioned KBR’s ability to perform such inspections, based on her experience with the company from July 2004 to July 2006.

“It’s like the fox watching the henhouse,” she told lawmakers.

Crawford, a journeyman electrician with nearly 30 years of experience, testified that qualified supervision of electrical work on KBR jobs was “sorely lacking” and that many of the employees KBR hired were third-country nationals and Iraqis who weren’t properly trained.

“The KBR employees supervising these electrical contractors often had no electrical experience at all,” Crawford said. “How can you effectively supervise electricians when you don’t understand what they are doing or what the potential ramifications are if it is not done correctly? Qualified electricians found it difficult to deal with the complacency, the lack of leadership, the lack of tools and materials and the lack of safety. … Time and time again we heard ‘This is not the States, [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] doesn’t apply here. You’re in a war zone, what do you expect?’ and ‘If you don’t like it you can go home.’ ”

Larraine McGee blames the Pentagon for not doing enough to prevent her son, Staff Sgt. Christopher Lee Everett, from being electrocuted while power-washing the underside of a Humvee at Camp Taqaddum in Iraq on Sept. 7, 2005.

In a December 2005 report, the Army stated that the “generator supplying electricity to the power washer was improperly grounded, resulting in an electrical current passing to the power washer and through the water in the hose to the nozzle Chris was holding,” McGee said.

“When the Army presented this report, they led me to believe that Chris’s incident was the first such fatality. They told me outright that as the result of Chris’s death, all generators across Iraq were being properly grounded so that this would not happen again.”

It wasn’t until April of this year that McGee said she learned that her son was the fourth person to be electrocuted in Iraq at that time and that the military was warned about these hazards in the 2004 Corps of Engineers report.

“My son should never have died. Ryan Maseth should have never died,” she told the committee. “Proper grounding is a basic safety requirement. The problem was known about long before Chris’s death.”

There were no representatives from the Pentagon at the hearing, but Casey said the Defense Department needs to immediately address the issue.

“If I were working for the Department of Defense … I would want this problem corrected — right now,” he said. “I would want to demonstrate without question to the American people that this problem is fixed; that no one will ever lose their life in Iraq this way.”

When contacted after the hearing, the Pentagon released a statement declining comment, saying the matter had been referred to the Defense Department Inspector General’s office for investigation.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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