Man electrocuted repairing boiler

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A man died when he was electrocuted as he fixed a gas central heating system, an inquest has heard.

James Davies died in October last year, just 19 days before his 30th birthday, Cardiff Coroner's Court was told.

Mr Davies, from the Llanishen area of Cardiff, was found face down in a bedroom as he repaired a boiler at a house in Strathnairn Street, Roath.

After a jury returned a verdict of accidental death, his wife Emma said: "He was just doing his job."

The inquest heard how Mr Davies, who was registered with the gas safety watchdog Corgi and was authorised to maintain and install gas central heating, was found by the house's tenant, Edrufo Barbosa.

Mary Hassell, Coroner for Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, said he may not have turned the electricity supply off to allow Mr Barbosa's children to continue watching television.

"He would have known the incoming cable was still live but he was not specially trained in electrics," she said.

"If he had known, his reason for not turning the electricity off first was either because he didn't want to go downstairs to turn it off or because he was allowing Mr Barbosa's children to continue watching television and playing on the computer."

Burn marks

Dr Steven Leadbeatter, a senior lecturer in forensic pathology at the University Hospital Wales, Cardiff, told the coroner's court there were lesions, burn marks and metallic deposits on Mr Davies's left arm, suggesting he had suffered from electrical burns.

Paul Gilson, an inspector for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), said: "Mr Davies was fitting a new control box on a boiler. I think his hand got jammed between the incoming cable of the immersion heater switch and the control panel.

"It is supposition, but the only way I can appreciate how he got burn marks on the back of his left hand and blisters on the front would be if his hand got stuck there for a considerable amount of time, minutes if not longer."

Speaking outside the coroner's court, Mr Davies's wife Emma said: "He was just doing his job and this was a part of it.

"At the time of the accident I asked why it had happened, an electrocution shouldn't be something that happens as part of this job."