Public told to coordinate with power firm

CEBU, Philippines - The Mactan Electric Cooperative has advised owners of high-structure houses and buildings in Lapu-Lapu City to coordinate with their office whenever there are constructions or activities which require their office to impose safety measures.

The advisory came after a 25-year-old man, who was tasked by his neighbor to clean the roofing of his two-story house, was electrocuted last Friday afternoon in Barangay Marigondon, Lapu-Lapu City.

MECO said safety measures like covering high tension wires and setting them up high could have been done if only the owner of the said house had coordinated with them before they allowed someone to climb their roof and have it cleaned.

Meljun Omera, a resident of Masiwa, Barangay Marigondon, was supposed to clean the roofing of the house when the back of his body brushed with a high-tension wire as he was climbing his way up using a ladder.

He was immediately rushed to Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City by an ambulance after neighbors found him unconscious and hanging from the ladder and about to fall.

Neighbors saw the continuing sparks and heard some jolting sounds from the electric wire which they believed left Omera unconscious and no longer moving.

They immediately called the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation and an ambulance and a fire truck arrived. Firemen used their fire truck's ladder to be sheltered from the high-tension wire as they rescued Omera.

Meanwhile, the neighbor who hired the victim already talked with Omera's family and promised to shoulder the cost of hospitalization and medicines.  (FREEMAN)