JW critically injured after being electrocuted in assembly hall

Anders Andersen

A newspaper reports that in Bornem, Belgium, a JW volunteer was critically injured after being electrocuted:

BORNEM - A man was electrocuted while performing maintenance on a high voltage installation in the assembly hall of JW in Bornem Friday afternoon. The man was critically injured.
Possibly the man, who is a volunteer with the JW, tried to clean the installation with a vacuum cleaner. While doing that he received a severe electrical shock. The victim was transported to a hospital in Sint-Niklaas.
Because of the incident the power in the neighbourhood went down as well. Large areas of Hingene and Bornem had no power for almost an hour.

Source (in Dutch)

I hope the guy will be ok....but high voltage shocks and the severe burns that come with them aren't very good for one's health :-(

If the report is correct, the JW "volunteer" made a massive mistake by using a vacuum cleaner on the electrical installation. I doubt he would have been a registered electrician who would never have done that.

jookbeard

surprised there hasn't been more incidents like this over the years, I'm sure there has been though, their blatant disregard for H&S over the years on their construction projects bordered on lunacy, I recall one incident on The Surrey Assembly Hall site of a sister turning up and working all day in high heels, the keys to the dumper trucks were a free for all, the utter stupid pointless waste of time that quickbuilds were haunt me to this day, someone holding a plank of wood, someone else marking with a pencil, someone with the saw and someone else walking off with the cut plank, the ultimate in inefficiency. I vowed after seeing these scenes of farce never to return and I rightly didn't.

smiddy3

While my heart goes out for the poor victim and his family doing what he believes is "Gods Will) for him I sincerely hope his family sue the WT organisation for what they can get in compensation.

If only they had been awakened by the TTATT

Half banana

Tragic for the man involved but I do know of a rich religion that will not be rushing to give him financial assistance.

darkspilver

FYI - the OP's news source appears to have updated this story today with some more information - though it is via Google translate

Handyman (80) receives 15,000 volts power: Antwerp is in danger of living after vacuuming a power cab

Gazet van Antwerpen, Saturday, September 9, 2017
An eighty-one from Antwerp was killed in a lifetime accident when he wanted to clean the drinking cabinet of the Jehovah's Witnesses conference hall in Bornem with a vacuum cleaner. In addition, he might hit the electrical system and gained a current of 15,000 volts.
Een tachtiger uit Antwerpen is gisteren levensgevaarlijk gewond geraakt toen hij de stroomcabine van de congreshal van Jehova’s Getuigen in Bornem met een stofzuiger wilde reinigen. Daarbij raakte hij wellicht de elektrische installatie en kreeg een stroomstoot van 15.000 volt.
http://m.gva.be/cnt/dmf20170908_03061431/klusjesman-80-krijgt-stroomstoot-van-15-000-volt

The following also has a short video

Elderly person in mortality after electrocution in Bornem

rtv, Friday September 8, 2017
In a bizarre accident in Bornem this afternoon, an elderly man was killed in life. The victim wanted to vacuum the inside of a high-voltage cabin, which was widely electrocuted. The accident happened in the areas of a congress center for Jehovah's Witnesses. The facts also cause a nearby electricity team. Hundreds of families and businesses spent almost an hour without power.
Bij een bizar ongeval in Bornem is vanmiddag een bejaarde man levensgevaarlijk gewond geraakt. Het slachtoffer wilde de binnenkant van een hoogspanningscabine stofzuigen, maard werd geëlektrocuteerd. Het ongeval gebeurde op de terreinen van een congrescentrum voor Jehova's Getuigen. De feiten zorgen ook voor een elektriciteitspanne in de buurt. Honderden gezinnen en bedrijven zaten bijna een uur lang zonder stroom.
http://www.rtv.be/artikels/bejaarde-levensgevaar-na-elektrocutie-bornem-a43794

DesirousOfChange

Tragic for the man involved but I do know of a rich religion that will not be rushing to give him financial assistance.

He's 80 year old. MAYBE WTS will ask the Cong members to help see that he gets to meetings or (if he dies) help look in on his widow.

CASH??? HAHAHAHAHAHAH

dropoffyourkeylee

In the states they allow pioneers to volunteer to clean or do maintenance at assemby halls, and count their time towards their required hours. It seems likely this guy was doing that too.

Anony Mous

I've helped renovate Bornem a few times, many of it's features are a death trap, every time the WTBTS changes it's mind, they have to renovate the place but it's often not done professionally (volunteer work, FTW)

They used to have an industrial kitchen in the dining hall, they used to make french fries, it was removed after the WTBTS decided that providing food at ~$10/meal wasn't profitable enough (the food was too expensive for a lot of us anyway) but the installation remained for years after with big pots, gas stoves and fryers standing around while kids ran around it and their parents cleaned it after the convention was over.

I also know exactly where the dude got fried, the installation was old when I last saw it (25 years ago) and doesn't have a lock out. Most likely someone assigned him to the area because it's not where you commonly go although "it has to be clean for Jehovah".