Families, ex-employees testify about KBR role in electrocutions

Contractor under fire for Iraq electrocutions

Families, ex-employees testify about firm’s role
By Matthew Cox - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jul 11, 2008 18:09:22 EDT

Halliburton KBR improperly installed electrical wiring or failed to fix known electrical hazards at U.S. bases in Iraq that resulted in the deaths of 11 service members and two civilians, family members and former employees of the contracting giant testified at a Congressional hearing.

Electrical hazards in showers, swimming pools and work spaces have killed 10 soldiers, one Marine and two civilian contractors since 2003.

Sen. Robert Casey, D-Penn., expressed frustration that the latest electrocution that caused the death of Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth Jan. 2, 2008, occurred four years after an Army Corps of Engineer report warning that these electrical hazards on bases were a “killer of soldiers.”

“That’s October 2004 and we are sitting here in 2008 and we are still talking about this,” Casey said, describing his disgust that Maseth, a Special Forces soldier, lost his life while taking a shower in his barracks in Baghdad. “That’s an abomination.”

Maseth’s mother, Cheryl Harris, testified at the Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing, telling lawmakers that she has learned that KBR found the electrical hazard during an inspection of her son’s barracks 11 months before his death. She listed deficiencies such as that “the building’s main circuit panel, the secondary feeder panel and the water tank were not grounded.” In addition, the “wiring leading into the secondary electrical panel was not sized properly for the main [circuit] breakers, did not have proper thermal coating, and did not meet U.S. or British electrical codes.”
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