A Denver electrical contractor was cited this week for alleged serious and willful violations, with proposed fines of $115,500, stemming from a construction site fire last September in Aurora that left one worker with severe burns.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Denver-based Team Electric Inc. for unsafe working conditions, claiming the company allowed employees to work on open energized panels without protective equipment and fire-resistent clothing.
“Electrical circuits were not guarded properly” and there was an explosion, said Herb Gibson, OSHA’s area director. “The employer had knowledge of the hazards.”
But an attorney representing Team Electric blames faulty equipment for the fire and said the injured employee was not working on the electrical panel at the time.
“We think that there was a flaw in the way the electrical system had been delivered to us, and this fire was going to happen at some point,” Denver lawyer Roger Freeman said. “The employee did not even have tools and was not working on the equipment, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The company has three weeks to negotiate a settlement or dispute OSHA’s allegations before it either pays the fines or contests them before an administrative judge.
The worker, a 49-year-old father of two sons, remained hospitalized until the last week or two, Freeman said. He suffered serious burns on his torso, arms and corneas from the fire, which occurred inside the main electrical room of a warehouse at 3301 N. Tower Road, OSHA officials said.
“When the accident occurred, Team Electric got its own independent expert to determine the cause because we wanted to know how the fire was caused and whether we needed to do anything possible to address it,” Freeman said. “This really was one of those things we feel like was an unfortunate accident, and if Team Electric was at fault, then we would acknowledge our responsibility.”
Team Electric has no previous citations nor has it been previously investigated, Gibson said. “I think that since this accident, the employer has implemented different procedures to make their work practices safer when dealing with electrical equipment,” he said.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
