4 Civilian Painters Electrocuted at San Diego Submarine Base

Four painters were electrocuted and another was critically injured Friday when they pushed a metal scaffold against a high-voltage power line at the Navy Submarine Base here.

The contact between the scaffold and the 12,000-volt line caused an explosion and fireball and sent about 7,500 volts of electricity down the scaffold and into the men’s bodies, San Diego Gas & Electric Co. supervisors said.

Four of the men died within moments at the scene of the accident. They were identified as Edward J. Illig, 37, of Lemon Grove, William H. Mallory, 37, and James B. Tatum, 56, of San Diego, and Benjamin J. Ross, 27, of El Cajon.

The fifth victim, Charles Booth, 50, of National City was severely burned and was taken by helicopter to the UC San Diego Medical Center, where he was in critical condition Friday.

All five men were civilian paint ers working for the Navy Public Works Center in San Diego. They had been working on the submarine base since August, and for a week had been painting Argonaut Hall, a three-story building used for training and private university classes for Navy personnel, said Navy spokeswoman Lt. (j.g.) Joy E. Hopkins.

Were Moving Scaffold

Hopkins said the men had apparently finished painting the south side of the building and were moving the scaffold to the east side when the accident occurred. She said it was not known whether the men misjudged the height of the scaffold and the power lines or whether they hadn’t realized that the lines were there.

The scaffold was 28 feet, 2 inches tall. The three parallel wires--typical power lines strung between telephone poles--were 27 feet, 4 inches above the ground.

Petty Officer 1st Class John Wheeless said he saw the men moving the scaffold as he was driving by the building on Sylvester Road about 8:55 a.m.

“After I passed them, I heard the explosion,” Wheeless said.

Wheeless said he pulled around the side of another building, parked his car and began searching for a way to cut off the power. He said people from the surrounding buildings emerged and attempted to pull the men off of the scaffold, using belts, boards and other objects.

One Man Survived

Witnesses at the scene reported that they were unable to pull the men away from the scaffold for several minutes because power was running through the scaffold and the victims’ bodies. But an SDG&E; supervisor said he believed that the power was cut off automatically by the electrical system as soon as the contact between the scaffold and the wire caused a break in the current.

Phil Bateman, a crew foreman, said there was no way to know why one of the men survived the accident.

“It’s just luck,” he said. “It’s not predictable at all.”

All five men were experienced painters who had worked for the Public Works Center for many years, center spokeswoman Marilyn Gouge said. Tatum had worked for the center since 1966, Booth since 1971, Illig since 1977, Mallory since 1978 and Ross since 1985.

The federal Occupation Safety and Health Administration sent an investigator to the base Friday. Hopkins said the Navy Public Works Safety Center was also investigating the accident.