On Tuesday, at around 2am, a 12-year-old boy died from electrocu­tion at the Lelean Memorial School teachers’ quarters in Davuilevu, Nausori.

EFL wishes to advise that its preliminary investiga­tion into the incident has re­vealed that:

• the victim was playing outside a house with other children
• in the process he tripped and fell upon a steel pipe ladder which was leaning against the roof of the house
• In the toilet of the house was installed a two-feet tube tight. The switch wire for this light had a joint, and this joint had been poorly taped and the live wire became ex­posed and came into contact with the metallic frame of the tubelight, which then became ‘live’
• A nail from the roof of the house protruding through a timber came into contact with the tubelight’s metallic frame which, in turn, caused the roof of the house to be electrified and live.
• The roof, in turn, caused the ladder, which was leaning against the roof, to be electrified which led to the unfortu­nate demise of the victim when he came into contact with the ladder.

EFL wishes to clarify that the victim came into contact with the ‘live’ steel ladder, which was leaning against the roof of the house which had been electrified, and NOT a steel pole carrying an EFL live wire as has been reported by the Fiji Sun in its daily newspapers dated January 3, 2019.

Further visual inspection made of the electrical wiring inside the house revealed that wiring alteration works had been carried out, and was done in an unsafe manner and not inspected and approved by an EFL installation inspec­tor.

EFL strongly cautions all its electricity customers to en­sure that they only engage EFL licensed electrical contrac­tors for their electrical wiring requirements, and these li­censed electrical contractors will then arrange for an EFL inspector to inspect and certify.

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