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Submitted By -Southern California Edison accident
Here is a quote believed to be in the Los Angeles Times about an accident. ["A freak electrical explosion killed two SCE workers fixing a transformer Monday in the city of Industry, leaving a seared corpse dangling for hours from the power pole. "People that have been here for 30 years say they've never seen such a thing before," said Clara Potes-Fellow, a SCE spokeswoman. "It's like a soldier dying in combat." The dead workers were identified late Monday as Adel J. Boyadjian, 31, of LaVerne, an electrical crew foreman who had worked for SCE for 11 years, and Steven F. Peralta Jr., 35, of Victorville, a lineman/splicer with 13 years with the company. The body of one of the men remained atop the power pole for more than three hours because of potential danger from a still smoldering fire inside the pole, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Henry Rodriguez said. Coroner'sinvestigators also asked the body not be immediately moved so they could assess how the worker died. Cal/OSHA is investigating the deaths. The incident began at midday when four Edison workers were called to the 200 block of North Baldwin Park Boulevard on a routine job to repair a damaged transformer, officials said. Businesses in the industrial area had lacked power for 45 minutes. The workers finished the repairs about 1:30 pm Sara Ariza said she was inside a conference room with co-workers at Mercado Latino, a food distribution company located a few feet behind the pole, when someone said, "Oh the power's back on." The explosion came about a minute later. A line connected to the transformer toppled, sending sparks flying, setting a worker at the base of the pole on fire and igniting his Southern California Edison truck. The flame raced up the pole and engulfed another man who was on top packing up his tools, Rodriguez said. The other two workers were already on the ground and could only watch in horror as their colleagues burned to death. Authorities said they were in seclusion."]