East Pattaya Fish Shop Owner electrocuted

[webfact]

East Pattaya Fish Shop Owner electrocuted



PATTAYA: -- The 42 year old owner of a fish shop in East Pattaya was electrocuted early on Wednesday Morning as he cleaned his shop front after closing time.

Rescue Services received an urgent call to attend the Yupin Fish Shop in Soi Kao Noi and administered CPR to the victim, Khun Witawat who is also a Highway Police Volunteer.

Despite the best efforts of medics his death was confirmed upon arrival at Hospital.

The victims distraught wife explained to us that Khun Witawat was using a hose to clean his shop and the water came into contact with a plug socket which caused it to burn-out.

Full story: http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/102918/east-pattaya-fish-shop-owner-electrocuted/


-- Pattaya One 2013-09-18

[OMGImInPattaya]

A few simple safety electrics probably could have prevented this death...but even they can cost up to 5-10k which is allot of money for most Thais.

[thhMan]

Tragic situation ... Didnt he see the plug?

RIP

[Nepsydaz]

Sad..... RIP

But the safety knowledge here is really poor. This is what I saw a repair guy was doing .....

[slipperylobster]

Sounds similar to most electrical mishaps. Carelessness, water, and electricity. It's too simple to remark on, but it is apparently a problem for some people to understand. Circuit breaker and rubber soled shoes first, then hose down your outlets and wade through, if that is what you need to do.

[maddas]

electricity has no fear

[Nepsydaz]

electricity has no fear

No it doesn't.

But People should......

[colinneil]

Electric and water don`t mix, how crazy using water near power points.

Thai`s do this all the time ,why can they not see danger.

R.I.P. condolences to his family.

[tominbkk]

I was at Central Plaza one day, sitting on a bench inside waiting for a friend. I saw an older guy open his clothing shop with the long metal poles they use to open the metal shutter doors. He then started using the metal pole to adjust the track lighting, by pushing the pole up into the light itself and moving it around. I kept watching him and he would look and smile at me and continue on with his little task.

Something in my brain wanted to tell him it was very dangerous to do but I figured he would just laugh.

[lee b]

Idont think the guy understood that spraying a plug socket with water is a No No.. RIP

[Marcel1]

this post is 8hours online and we have one page with people paying their respect. which of course is justified and I truly hope that this man may have a good afterlife and his family live with this terrible thing.

though if it was a foreigner here who passed away wouldnt we have 10 pages here with speculations how his wife or her brother must have killed him? just saying...

[Longtooth]

A "GFI" saved my life here. That's a Ground Fault Interruptor. Mine is a 63 ampere single-phase main breaker. (Feeds the whole breaker panel. It just clicks in, and replaces a normal main breaker in the same space. Both hot and newtral wires connect to it.) It cost about 1250 baht, as I remember. Very little anyway....at Home Mart. Square D brand, as that's what my panel is. There is a yellow test button on it that you should press every month to test that it's good. These 3" by 4" boxes with a red button and another button, are for motor protection, not human safety, as some salespeople may have said. (At some places.) Anyway, if the amperage going down the hot wire (usually black) excedes the amount of electricity coming back on the neutral wire (usually white and at ground potential, since it should be bonded to a ground rod at you electrical panel location.) by 30 thousands of an amp (30 mA, or 30 milli amp) It will kick off, in like a quarter of a second. If I remember correctly, it takes about 50 milliamps to kill a person. So when you are hosing down hot electrical with your finger in the water stream and you're barefoot on wet tile you might be in for it. Or, if you are working on a hot level switch with the cover off, and your right sweaty arm is firmly planted on the stainless water tank, and you touch your chin to a hot contact screw, and everything goes black for about 1/2 a second and it feels like somebody socked you in the jaw, and your wife comes out of the house to tell you all the electricity in the house has switched off, then you know that the 1250 baht GFI main breaker that you just bought on an impulse with a shrug of the shoulders, was the best dam_n investment you ever made in your life. I have about 230 volts at my house, I'm near the distribution transformer. My little impulse of "safety" counterbalanced my larger lack of brains. Your system has to be in good shape and free of "faults" to use it, or it will just keep tripping. And the little "tingle" off of some metal case appliances will still come. You need to put a little ground wire to their case and to a little ground rod outside it they only have a two prong plug. (One of life's mysteries.)

Edited September 18, 2013 by Longtooth

[chris1101]

I have just been told that this man is the father of my nephews wife.

RIP

[Basil B]

Yes, another tragic accident.

So easily avoidable if there were strong building regs relating to electrics, recall seeing many appliances where the earth pin had been broken off because the sockets were 2 pin.

[peecee]

A "GFI" saved my life here. That's a Ground Fault Interruptor. Mine is a 63 ampere single-phase main breaker. (Feeds the whole breaker panel. It just clicks in, and replaces a normal main breaker in the same space. Both hot and newtral wires connect to it.) It cost about 1250 baht, as I remember. Very little anyway....at Home Mart. Square D brand, as that's what my panel is. There is a yellow test button on it that you should press every month to test that it's good. These 3" by 4" boxes with a red button and another button, are for motor protection, not human safety, as some salespeople may have said. (At some places.) Anyway, if the amperage going down the hot wire (usually black) excedes the amount of electricity coming back on the neutral wire (usually white and at ground potential, since it should be bonded to a ground rod at you electrical panel location.) by 30 thousands of an amp (30 mA, or 30 milli amp) It will kick off, in like a quarter of a second. If I remember correctly, it takes about 50 milliamps to kill a person. So when you are hosing down hot electrical with your finger in the water stream and you're barefoot on wet tile you might be in for it. Or, if you are working on a hot level switch with the cover off, and your right sweaty arm is firmly planted on the stainless water tank, and you touch your chin to a hot contact screw, and everything goes black for about 1/2 a second and it feels like somebody socked you in the jaw, and your wife comes out of the house to tell you all the electricity in the house has switched off, then you know that the 1250 baht GFI main breaker that you just bought on an impulse with a shrug of the shoulders, was the best dam_n investment you ever made in your life. I have about 230 volts at my house, I'm near the distribution transformer. My little impulse of "safety" counterbalanced my larger lack of brains. Your system has to be in good shape and free of "faults" to use it, or it will just keep tripping. And the little "tingle" off of some metal case appliances will still come. You need to put a little ground wire to their case and to a little ground rod outside it they only have a two prong plug. (One of life's mysteries.)

A Residual Current Device RCD cost is low when you consider your families safety and like you say easy to fit. The tingle you are experiencing from metal chassis is because the neutral voltage is not always at earth, so a potential can exist unless you earth all metal appliances with a 1mtr earthing rod. Incidentally; I've seen new houses built with a three core RCD wiring system but fridges and the like are still sold with no earth!

[paz]

A Residual Current Device RCD cost is low when you consider your families safety and like you say easy to fit. The tingle you are experiencing from metal chassis is because the neutral voltage is not always at earth, so a potential can exist unless you earth all metal appliances with a 1mtr earthing rod. Incidentally; I've seen new houses built with a three core RCD wiring system but fridges and the like are still sold with no earth!

That because they use a "double insulation" design and pass the relative tests. It is the same as the corresponsing devices sold in Western countries. There is little to be worried about thesem as long they are usued normally and cabling/plugs kept proper.

[OMGImInPattaya]

A Residual Current Device RCD cost is low when you consider your families safety and like you say easy to fit. The tingle you are experiencing from metal chassis is because the neutral voltage is not always at earth, so a potential can exist unless you earth all metal appliances with a 1mtr earthing rod. Incidentally; I've seen new houses built with a three core RCD wiring system but fridges and the like are still sold with no earth!

That because they use a "double insulation" design and pass the relative tests. It is the same as the corresponsing devices sold in Western countries. There is little to be worried about thesem as long they are usued normally and cabling/plugs kept proper.

Also referred and labeled as Class 2 appliances?

[paz]

Also referred and labeled as Class 2 appliances?

Class II actually.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appliance_classes

Apologies for the many spelling mistakes.

Edited September 20, 2013 by paz

[Basil B]

Class II sounds good, but when it is enclosed in a metal skin I still would like to have earth bonding, particularly if by any chance it was made in China.

But back onto the original story, clearly as seen in the photo's are electrical plugs and switches close to a stainless steel work surface and by the nature of the business it is obvious that the work surfaces would require regular cleaning which would likely entail a lot of water splashing around.

Most countries have electrical regulations that would have outlawed this installation, in the UK we have had Electrical Wiring regulations since 1882, not sure if the first edition covered installations near wet areas, but I do know that for over 50 years in the UK there have been rules on not placing switches, sockets, and other electrical installations in bathrooms or near sinks in kitchens or other areas that may be wet including swimming pools, and industrial processes.

One thing for sure if this had happened in the UK "Elf & Safety" would now be hanging one or more persons by the "short & curlies" with the possible "culpable manslaughter" charges and a prison sentence, (unless this wiring was the deceased's own un-supervised work).

[fakename]

Longtooth, where did you find an electrician that installed your GFI, and what was the cost? I would hate to have Somjai come out and do the work, but not done correctly, and sometime in the future, get the shock of my life. Like all things electric, it has to be done right, by someone that knows what he is doing.

[EyesWideOpen]

this post is 8hours online and we have one page with people paying their respect. which of course is justified and I truly hope that this man may have a good afterlife and his family live with this terrible thing.

though if it was a foreigner here who passed away wouldnt we have 10 pages here with speculations how his wife or her brother must have killed him? just saying...

Don't give the Thai girls any ideas........So now instead of 8 Thai guys throwing you off the balcony ( yes mr. policeman am think boyfriend have big problem home country as I see him look sad....), now it will be

8 Thai guys with rubber gloves holding you down while you are being electrocuted , and when you are dead

your body will be placed next to an electrical outlet.

Sorry to read about this guy. I think there is a lack of education in Thailand about the dangers of mixing

water and electricity. There were some amazing photos during the flood of 2011, showing people in their

flooded homes watching TV and wires hanging all around.

[cup-O-coffee]

There was an incident about a Thai customer shooting at a restaurant owner because he spilled fish sauce on the customer. I hope this is not related.