7-Month-Old Electrocuted in Home Accident

With the flashing lights of an ambulance piercing through the thin curtains of his living room Wednesday night, Gregorio Vivar watched his 7-month-old son take his final breath.

“I can’t believe this,” the 32-year-old landscaper said Thursday as he prepared to make funeral arrangements for his only child, Tony Torres Vivar.

At 8 p.m. on Wednesday, the baby, who had just learned to crawl, grabbed two bare wires that were dangling from a desk fan in his parents’ bedroom. He was found a short time later lying on the carpeted floor, his small hand still clutching the exposed wires that led to a live electrical wall socket.

Despite efforts by his father and paramedics, the boy was pronounced dead at Humana Hospital-Huntington Beach of electrocution. Police said no charges would be filed against Vivar, who emigrated from Mexico 16 years ago, or his 17-year-old wife, Blanca.

Vivar said that he and his wife had invited two women to their house to interview them as potential roommates to ease the family’s financial problems.

While the four were talking in the living room of the Vivar’s neat but sparsely furnished Oak Street apartment, Tony became restless and fussy. Vivar picked up the boy and moved him into the master bedroom, mistakenly thinking his son would be out of harm’s way, he said.

Vivar said that a few minutes later, after the guests had left, he went to check on Tony.

“He was very quiet, and I thought he was asleep,” Vivar said. But the boy was barely breathing.

Vivar had spliced the electrical cord 2 weeks ago but had neglected to wrap protective electrical tape around the wires.

Vivar said he scooped his son into his arms and ran into the living room, screaming to his wife to call 911.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I just held him in my arms.”

Minutes later, as the paramedic van pulled up in front of his apartment building, he saw his son’s eyes flutter, then stop.

“He died in my arms,” he said.

Vivar said his wife has been so traumatized by her son’s death that she no longer wants to stay in the same apartment.

“My wife, she don’t want to stay here,” he said. “We got to move soon.”