Authorities now say it will be Monday before Jupiter Police release their report on the electrocution in the fountain at Harbourside Place. And the Town of Jupiter Building Department is expected to issue a correction notice next week to Harbourside Place, informing them of what needs to be corrected in the fountain that led to the tragedy.
On Monday afternoon, the Jupiter Police Department reported a tragic electrocution that occurred on Sunday at Harbourside Place. Following the incident, three children and two adults were rushed to local hospitals for medical attention. One person lost their life, while four others suffered injuries due to an electric shock received in the fountain area.
The Jupiter Police Department announced the death of the person – who has not yet been identified – on Monday, sharing that four others were also injured when the electric shock occurred at Harbourside Place on Sunday
Members of two Smith Mountain Lake volunteer fire departments are conducting free voltage checks of docks with a special apparatus, a “Shock Alert,” to detect a potentially fatal electrical charge coursing through the water.
With a voltage detector, Smith Mountain Lake Marine Fire and Rescue is checking the water around docks and other lake structures, doing 20 such checks in recent months. Stray voltage has been discovered in every instance but two, firefighter Neil Harrington told the Smith Mountain Lake Water Safety Council at its meeting Wednesday.
“Voltage was found around every dock, old and new, except two,” Harrington said. “No stray amount is normal.”
The safety council gave Scruggs Fire, Rescue and Dive enough money to purchase a voltage detector so they, too, can conduct checks and potentially save the lives of residents, visitors and even first responders responding to emergencies around docks.
Electric shock drowning is a real and present danger in many places, including Smith Mountain Lake, although to date, there are no records of such an incident occurring here.
Several years ago, over the Independence Day weekend, two Missouri siblings died in what could have been a preventable tragedy.
Alexandra Anderson, 13, and her brother, Brayden Anderson, 8, were swimming next to a private dock in the Lake of the Ozarks when they started to scream. Their parents raced to their aid, but by the time rescuers pulled the siblings from the lake, they were unresponsive. Both children were pronounced dead after being transported to a nearby hospital. Just two hours later, in Tennessee, a 10-year-old boy died in Cherokee Lake in a similar manner, and according to press reports, seven other swimmers were injured near where the boy died.
These were not the victims of drowning, but of a phenomenon known as Electric Shock Drowning (ESD). In all of the cases, 120-volt alternating current leakage from nearby boats or docks electrocuted or incapacitated swimmers in fresh water. In just four months during the summer of 2012, seven cases of ESD were confirmed, as well as many near misses, and a lot of incidents were undetected.
The heartbreaking phenomenon could happen at Smith Mountain Lake, or any body of fresh water, according to Tom Merriman, a member of the Smith Mountain Lake Water Safety Council. Merriman, a native of Ohio who has called the lake home since 1998, learned about ESD in stories published in BoatUS.com.
“It caught my attention,” said Merriman. “A lot of those conditions are present at Smith Mountain Lake. Clearly, it’s our educational responsibility as a safety council to alert people to the possibility. We care about boating safety and other water-related safety issues, and I think we should raise awareness of ESD. I talked to a fellow recently who experienced a tingling sensation in the water,” possibly caused by electrical current. “It’s a big red flag.”
Most of the hundreds of private and commercial docks on Smith Mountain Lake have electrical service, bringing current through conduits to power lights and boat lifts. Merriman said his own dock at Spinnaker Run also has a 220 line to run an irrigation pump for his yard.
OCTOBER 01, 2017 2:28 PM
State inspectors have concluded that faulty wiring at a pump house led to the death of a Pasco teen while he was swimming in the Columbia River.
Cole R. Grad was shimmying across a concrete wall and wire fence surrounding the private irrigation facility on Aug. 10 when he touched an electrified pipe connected to the pump system.
The shock paralyzed the 15-year-old, and he went underwater.
A report from the state Department of Labor & Industries shows that a cable “went to ground,” energizing the outside case of the motor.
The faulty wiring made it so a breaker couldn’t be tripped to stop the electricity from flowing.
“Contact with any part of the motor, pump or suction line and any other grounded surface would most likely cause enough current flow to produce an electric shock,” the report said.
Inspectors noted that part of the pump had recently been worked on.
A department supervisor and lead inspector responded to the scene the following morning at the request of Franklin PUD officials. The investigation into Cole’s death was led by Pasco police detectives.
Angela and Jessie Grad said their son was enjoying the last days of summer as he prepared for his sophomore year at Chiawana High School.
Cole, who played football and baseball, was described as adventurous, happy and hardworking.
Cole and two friends had gone to the swimming spot south of Road 80 because they could use the wall to jump into a deeper part of the river.
After Cole fell into the river, his friends used one of their cellphones to call 911 at 8:24 p.m. An ambulance, fire engine and the Pasco Fire Rescue boat responded.
Two firefighters received electrical shocks while trying to get to Cole. A fire captain had to break into the pump house to shut off the service, then a Franklin PUD line crew cut the power at a nearby pole, de-energizing the area.
Cole was taken to Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland. His death was determined to be the result of an electric shock drowning.
A Lake Anna woman is working to get the word out to residents and marina owners about the risk of electric shock drowning.
The little-known problem can develop when the electrical outlets and wires on boat docks are not properly maintained. Electricity can seep into the water, posing a potentially lethal threat to swimmers.
Ruthie Haden, who lives in the Bienvenue subdivision, became aware of the issue after reading about two women who died on an Alabama lake earlier this year. Since then, she’s been working with her homeowner’s association to upgrade the electrical connections on their common area dock.
“You assume when you step onto your dock that everything’s okay,” she said.
Haden and an officer of the homeowners’ association found the covers had broken off of five outlets on the common area dock. She wasn’t sure what other problems an electrician may find. But she said it’s possible some of the electrical work may not have been inspected in the past 40 years.
With the outlet covers not properly covered, or when wires are not well-insulated, there is greater risk of water getting into the electrical devices, along with dirt and grit present in the water. This can lead to deterioration of wiring and, eventually, an electrical fault.
When that happens, electricity can’t necessarily get back to its source through wiring. If there is anything made of metal located between the wires and nearby water, such as a ladder, the electricity can use the metal as a path into the water itself.
A family whose son died in floods brought on by Tropical Storm Harvey is pleading with first responders, volunteers and residents to be aware of unseen dangers beneath the water.
Tuesday around 2:30 p.m., Andrew Pasek, 25, and his friend Shawn went to a home in the Bear Creek 1 subdivision near Highway 6 and Clay Road. They were there to get Pasek’s sister’s cat left behind in the rush to evacuate their home.
Eyewitness News Reporter Steven Romo sat down with Andrew’s mother, Jodell Pasek, Wednesday. Not even 24 hours after her son died, she wanted to get the message out about the unseen electrical danger.
Andrew stepped in the yard unaware that a landscape light electrified the water. He stumbled and grabbed the lamppost, using his last words to warn his friend to stay away, his mother said.
Only destiny knew that the trip of the Saudi family who lost their child in the swimming pool will be their last trip with him, as the vacation turned into a funeral as they lost their child after an electric shock in a children’s pool in Kumarakom, India.
MONETA, Va. – First responders are warning about a big problem in the water that’s completely invisible and could be deadly.
“You can’t see… (but) as soon as you get in the water, you get hit with the electricity” SML Marine Volunteer Fire Rescue Firefighter Neil Harrington said.
That’s what Smith Mountain Lake Marine Volunteer Fire Rescue crews say they’re seeing at some docks around the lake.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of facilities around the lake that were wired back 50 years ago or 30 years ago that probably need to upgrade their wiring,” Harrington said.
Infrastructure deteriorates over time, exposing wires and potentially putting electric current into the water.
“Typically what you’ll feel is a tingling sensation, which is the only warning that you get as you’re approaching the source of the electricity. If you were to go in right at the source of electricity, you’ll be electrocuted instantly,” Harrington said.
That’s why Harrington is using a new device, which detects electricity flowing through the water.
“Any amount of electricity is too much for me. I don’t want to come into contact with electricity and the water,” Harrington said.
Madeline Roskie was 18 and set to go off to college in the fall when she went inner-tubing with her boyfriend on a hot August day three years ago.
By the end of the day the healthy honor student was dead, the victim of a silent, invisible killer, according to a lawsuit filed by her father, Earl Roskie.
Roskie’s suit alleges that his daughter was electrocuted by an ungrounded irrigation pipe or pump in the Puyallup River and is seeking unspecified damages from Puget Sound Energy and several as-yet unnamed defendants.
Madeline “Maddy” Roskie was floating at the edge of the river in her inner tube when she suddenly felt her legs go numb, then fell unconscious and died, according to the suit filed earlier this month in Pierce County Superior Court.
Attorneys for the Roskie family say that although Maddy did not drown, they believe she was a victim of the phenomenon called Electric Shock Drowning, which they claim is a surprisingly common, and yet little known, freshwater hazard.
According to the suit, Roskie went inner-tubing in the river near the 96th Street Bridge east of Tacoma on Aug. 2, 2014.
She and her boyfriend took an initial run down the section of river and then walked back upstream to go again, the suit claims.
“While they were waiting in their tubes for another group to pass, Maddy complained that her legs were going numb. Within seconds, she became unconscious,” the suit claims.
Her boyfriend, who also experienced tingling in his fingers, floated her to shore, where CPR was started and help was called.
“Maddy Roskie was pronounced dead shortly after emergency personnel arrived. She had not experienced any blunt trauma, did not drown, and had no drugs, alcohol or toxins in her system to account for her death,” the suit alleges, adding that she was wearing a life jacket.
Roskie’s suit alleges that his daughter was electrocuted by an ungrounded irrigation pipe or pump in the Puyallup River and is seeking unspecified damages from Puget Sound Energy and several as-yet unnamed defendants.
Madeline “Maddy” Roskie was floating at the edge of the river in her inner tube when she suddenly felt her legs go numb, then fell unconscious and died, according to the suit filed earlier this month in Pierce County Superior Court. Attorneys for the Roskie family say that although Maddy did not drown, they believe she was a victim of the phenomenon called Electric Shock Drowning, which they claim is a surprisingly common, and yet little known, freshwater hazard.
According to the suit, Roskie went inner-tubing in the river near the 96th Street Bridge east of Tacoma on Aug. 2, 2014.
She and her boyfriend took an initial run down the section of river and then walked back upstream to go again, the suit claims.
Her boyfriend, who also experienced tingling in his fingers, floated her to shore, where CPR was started and help was called.
“Maddy Roskie was pronounced dead shortly after emergency personnel arrived. She had not experienced any blunt trauma, did not drown, and had no drugs, alcohol or toxins in her system to account for her death,” the suit alleges, adding that she was wearing a life jacket.
On Aug. 22, a Puget Sound Energy technician found that the source of the problem appeared to be an irrigation pump going into the river on a property adjacent to where Maddy died, according to the suit.
Three days later, a Pierce County associate medical examiner contacted East Pierce Fire and Rescue to express his concern that “an electrical hazard in or near the water at that location may have caused this girl’s death,” the suit claims.
The associate medical examiner had arrived at the possible explanation after eliminating other potential causes of death, according to one of Roskie’s attorneys, Kathy Goater.
That same day an operations manager from Puget Sound Energy told East Pierce Fire and Rescue that the problem had been found in an irrigation pipe and it was scheduled for repair the following day, on Aug. 26.
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