KBR now kills soldiers in showers by electrocution

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Green Beret electrocuted in shower on Iraq base

By Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein
CNN Special Investigations Unit
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A highly decorated Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth died a painful death in Iraq this year. He died not on the battlefield. He died in what should have been one of the safest spots in Iraq: on a U.S. base, in his bathroom.


The water pump was not properly grounded, and when he turned on the shower, a jolt of electricity shot through his body and electrocuted him January 2.

The next day, Cheryl Harris was informed of his death. A mother of three sons serving in Iraq, she had feared such news might come one day.

"I did ask exactly, 'How did Ryan die? What happened to him?' And he had told me that Ryan was electrocuted," she said.

Her reaction was disbelief. "I truly couldn't believe he would be electrocuted ... in the shower," she said.

Maseth, 24, was not the first. At least 12 U.S. troops have been electrocuted in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003, according to military and government officials. Video Watch mom describe horror, heartbreak over son's electrocution »

In fact, the Army issued a bulletin in 2004 warning that electrocution was "growing at an alarming rate." It said five soldiers died that year by electrocution, with improper grounding the likely culprit in each case.

The Army bulletin detailed one soldier's death in a shower -- eerily similar to Maseth's case -- that said he was found "lying on a shower room floor with burn marks on his body."

Maseth's mother says the Army was not immediately forthcoming with details about her son's death.

At one point, she says, the Army told her he had a small appliance with him in the shower on his base, a former palace complex near the Baghdad airport.

"It just created so much doubt, and I know Ryan, I know Ryan, I know how he was trained, I know that he would not have been in a shower with a small appliance and electrocuted himself," she said. Video Watch "I can't make sense around Ryan's death" »

The Army refused to answer CNN's questions about the case, citing pending litigation by Maseth's family.

Maseth's mother says she pressed the military for answers, eventually uncovering more details about her son's electrocution. The surging current left burn marks across his body, even singeing his hair. Army reports show that he probably suffered a long, painful death.

Fellow soldiers had to break down the door to help, said Patrick Cavanaugh, an attorney for Maseth's parents.
Don't Miss


"When they kicked down the door, they smelled burning hair, and they rushed over, saw Sgt. Maseth lying there unconscious, and one of the rescuers himself was shocked electrically and sustained a fairly good jolt because the water and the pipes were still electrified," Cavanaugh said.

Army documents obtained by CNN show that U.S.-paid contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) inspected the building and found serious electrical problems a full 11 months before Maseth was electrocuted.

KBR noted "several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of electrical devices." But KBR's contract did not cover "fixing potential hazards." It covered repairing items only after they broke down.

Only after Maseth died did the Army issue an emergency order for KBR to finally fix the electrical problems, and that order was carried out soon thereafter.

In an internal e-mail obtained by CNN, a Navy captain admits that the Army should have known "the extent of the severity of the electrical problems." The e-mail then says the reason the Army did not know was because KBR's inspections were never reviewed by a "qualified government employee."

Larraine McGee is the mother of Sgt. Christopher Everett, another soldier electrocuted in Iraq.

"The impression I got was that this was the first time that it had happened," McGee said.

Her son was cleaning a Humvee on his Iraqi base with a power washer that was not properly grounded in 2005.

"I thought Chris was the first and that because of that, they were going to correct the problem, and it wasn't going to happen again," she said.

When she learned of Maseth's electrocution, she was stunned.

"It makes me very angry, because there is no reason for this to be going on," said McGee.

The electrocution of soldiers is prompting anger in Washington.

"How did this happen?" asked Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

Waxman has called for an investigation. "Why wasn't it corrected when we had the first signs that people were dying from electrocutions?"

In a statement to CNN, the U.S. Department of Defense said it "considers this to be a serious issue and has referred it to the DoD Inspector General's office for action."

The Defense Department said that there are nearly 40,000 structures and housing units in the Iraqi theater and that "we believe there was adequate oversight of the KBR contractors."

"In the past 12 months, KBR performed over 2 million service or work order repairs across the theater," the Defense Department said.

It went on to say that the Pentagon has "no information" that personnel with Defense Contract Management Agency, which handles the KBR contract, was aware of the 2004 Army bulletin or that they "failed to take appropriate action in response to unsafe conditions brought to our attention."

The Defense Department inspector general's office said it could not comment on the new investigation at this time.

KBR declined a CNN interview, but in an e-mail the company said it found "no evidence of a link between the work it has been tasked to perform and the reported electrocutions."

The Defense Contract Management Agency declined to be interviewed, citing the Defense Department investigation.
advertisement

Harris says she will continue to fight to make sure other soldiers don't die similar deaths.

"I'm not going to sit around quietly," she said. "I want the answers surrounding Ryan's death -- the accountability. And even further, I want to make sure that our troops are taken care of that are left on the ground ... [so] they don't have to wake up and worry about taking a shower and electrocution."

[lazerus]

Doesn't sound like KBR killed them. They did the inspection and reported that there were dangerous problems, they just shrugged and said "We'll need more money if you want us to fix it."

That said...damn, shoddy no-bid contracts cost another soliders life. Disgraceful.

[MKSheppard]

So hum, 12 deaths by electrocution since the war began in 2003? Sounds about right, for the numbers of people we've got deployed.

[SirNitram]

Fucking slavers with their rape gangs.

I wish I was kidding on either count of those when speaking of KBR, though..

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Where does the power come from? These things have heaters?

[Patrick Degan]

So hum, 12 deaths by electrocution since the war began in 2003? Sounds about right, for the numbers of people we've got deployed.

So hum, 12 soldiers killed by shoddy workmanship by a no-bid contractor. Sounds par for the course for the Maladministration.

[Darth Wong]

What kind of contract doesn't require the contractor to make sure he built something that's properly constructed, or requires extra payment before the customer gets what he paid for in the first place?

[MKSheppard]

So hum, 12 soldiers killed by shoddy workmanship by a no-bid contractor. Sounds par for the course for the Maladministration.

Uhm, 12 deaths from electrocution sounds about par for the course over a five year mission.

Hm. You know, what's really interesting is the death ratio:

41% of all fatalities from electrocution from 2003-2008 occured in 2004 alone; which does tie in with a crucial time period -- the use of former Iraqi facilities for housing needs was widespread; because we hadn't begun to build large scale FOBs yet.

Tie that in with typical middle eastern lackadaisal attitude towards safety standards...and I wouldn't be surprised if half the buildings on many of these bases under US building codes would have to be torn down literally and rebuilt from the ground up...

[Patrick Degan]

So hum, 12 soldiers killed by shoddy workmanship by a no-bid contractor. Sounds par for the course for the Maladministration.

Uhm, 12 deaths from electrocution sounds about par for the course over a five year mission.

Hm. You know, what's really interesting is the death ratio:

41% of all fatalities from electrocution from 2003-2008 occured in 2004 alone; which does tie in with a crucial time period -- the use of former Iraqi facilities for housing needs was widespread; because we hadn't begun to build large scale FOBs yet.

Tie that in with typical middle eastern lackadaisal attitude towards safety standards...and I wouldn't be surprised if half the buildings on many of these bases under US building codes would have to be torn down literally and rebuilt from the ground up...

And the American no-bid contractors who did the work on the facilities couldn't be bothered to make sure this problem wasn't corrected in the first place... why, exactly?

[MKSheppard]

And the American no-bid contractors who did the work on the facilities couldn't be bothered to make sure this problem wasn't corrected in the first place... why, exactly?

Do you realize how time consuming it is to correct wiring deficiencies with the walls up? We're talking either paying $$$$$$$$$ and spending lots of manhours to fishwire individual wires through the wall, or simply ripping out the entire wall and legacy wire and put up new wiring and wall?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

And the American no-bid contractors who did the work on the facilities couldn't be bothered to make sure this problem wasn't corrected in the first place... why, exactly?

Do you realize how time consuming it is to correct wiring deficiencies with the walls up? We're talking either paying $$$$$$$$$ and spending lots of manhours to fishwire individual wires through the wall, or simply ripping out the entire wall and legacy wire and put up new wiring and wall?

Thank you for confirming that yes, a human life is indeed worth less than a properly-done rewiring job in Ayn Rand World.

[Darth Wong]

And the American no-bid contractors who did the work on the facilities couldn't be bothered to make sure this problem wasn't corrected in the first place... why, exactly?

Do you realize how time consuming it is to correct wiring deficiencies with the walls up? We're talking either paying $$$$$$$$$ and spending lots of manhours to fishwire individual wires through the wall, or simply ripping out the entire wall and legacy wire and put up new wiring and wall?

Oh bullshit. This isn't fucking Better Homes and Gardens magazine. If you want quick and dirty wiring and you know the stuff in the walls is shit, you can just run ugly-ass conduit down the wall, punch a hole where you need one, and then shoot foam filler on it. You're not going to be showing off your fashionable work on Oprah.

[MKSheppard]

Thank you for confirming that yes, a human life is indeed worth less than a properly-done rewiring job in Ayn Rand World.

More to the point; where are you going to put the troops while you tear apart and re-wire the building(s) they were occupying?

Basically, I just think the Army took a look at the statistics of the thing, and decided that miswired or non-existent grounds weren't enough of a danger to constitute a teardown of the place; because statistically, unless you do something very stupid, the chances of a nongrounded receptacle electrocuting you is very low.

100% grounding for receptacles is actually a very new thing in the US; there's lots of houses that are not properly grounded, because it wasn't required in the code back then; I've actually encountered them myself, the house my brother stays in at College Park is like that, I think only the bathroom wiring is grounded; the rest of the house is two prong outlet; and uses just hot and neutral wiring; there's no ground wire at all in the wiring; I actually opened up an outlet and looked in.

[SirNitram]

How typical of the world. The Right Winger blowing off completely avoidable troop death because it would have taken five minutes of efforts from the mercenaries.

[MKSheppard]

How typical of the world. The Right Winger blowing off completely avoidable troop death because it would have taken five minutes of efforts from the mercenaries.

This is not "five minutes of efforts", you stupid retarded cunt.

Don't tell someone who has actual hands on experience and classwork how to do their fucking trade.

I've done condit work, and it's a fucking bitch to do, compared to pulling Romex or BX through, and also time intensive in terms of installation; you have to measure the length; cut the condit, mount it, and then pull the wires through. Oh god, I hated that job at the wastewater plant; everything had to be condit because it needed to be explosion proof *shudders*

[Darth Wong]

How many US soldiers have died from accidents in Iraq? I hate to sound like a devil's advocate here, but frankly, 12 people in 5 years sounds like a drop in the bucket. I don't buy Shep's argument about the high cost of fixing bad wiring on a per-site basis, but if you add up even a relatively small cost over residences for hundreds of thousands of people, you're talking about big money. And any money you spend here will only end up being taken from somewhere else, where it could have just as much (or more) impact on soldier fatalities.

[Darth Wong]

Don't tell someone who has actual hands on experience and classwork how to do their fucking trade.

I've done condit work, and it's a fucking bitch to do, compared to pulling Romex or BX through, and also time intensive in terms of installation; you have to measure the length; cut the condit, mount it, and then pull the wires through. Oh god, I hated that job at the wastewater plant; everything had to be condit because it needed to be explosion proof *shudders*

The electricians at the plants where I worked could do it fast. Maybe they didn't like it, but they could do it and much faster than residential contractors pulling wire through my walls at home.

[MKSheppard]

Also, wiring work is fairly messy and space intensive; and not very many electricians are actually qualified for work on HOT wiring. You couldn't pay me enough to work on hot wiring. I like my wiring cold and locked out many times.

So this means we have to move troops around and kill the power to successive parts of the housing...

[SirNitram]

How typical of the world. The Right Winger blowing off completely avoidable troop death because it would have taken five minutes of efforts from the mercenaries.

This is not "five minutes of efforts", you stupid retarded cunt.

Don't tell someone who has actual hands on experience and classwork how to do their fucking trade.

I've done condit work, and it's a fucking bitch to do, compared to pulling Romex or BX through, and also time intensive in terms of installation; you have to measure the length; cut the condit, mount it, and then pull the wires through. Oh god, I hated that job at the wastewater plant; everything had to be condit because it needed to be explosion proof *shudders*

Gosh, what a horrible thing, a US contractor having to meet some standards. It's not like they're being ripped off, Shep. These were completely avoidable deaths and you just blow them off like the insipid hatemonger you are.

[MKSheppard]

The electricians at the plants where I worked could do it fast. Maybe they didn't like it, but they could do it and much faster than residential contractors pulling wire through my walls at home.

Of course mounting condit in an industrial setting (like a wastewater plant or factory) is going to be so much easier and faster than feeding wire through built up walls with fishooks and wiring grease.

[Darth Wong]

The electricians at the plants where I worked could do it fast. Maybe they didn't like it, but they could do it and much faster than residential contractors pulling wire through my walls at home.

Of course mounting condit in an industrial setting (like a wastewater plant or factory) is going to be so much easier and faster than feeding wire through built up walls with fishooks and wiring grease.

Well that's what I'm saying: they don't need it to look pretty. They can blow a hole through a wall if they need to and then shoot ugly foam around it afterwards, run big fat industrial-style conduit at will, etc. There's no reason they have to do it as expensively as you suggested earlier. The big cost comes when you add up the sheer number of times they have to do it.

[MKSheppard]

Gosh, what a horrible thing, a US contractor having to meet some standards.

Did you even read the articul?

Army documents obtained by CNN show that U.S.-paid contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) inspected the building and found serious electrical problems a full 11 months before Maseth was electrocuted.

KBR noted "several safety issues concerning the improper grounding of electrical devices." But KBR's contract did not cover "fixing potential hazards." It covered repairing items only after they broke down.

Only after Maseth died did the Army issue an emergency order for KBR to finally fix the electrical problems, and that order was carried out soon thereafter.

One of the things we were taught in our building trades courses is that you follow the contract to the letter. Our teacher was quite insistent on that; both from a business standpoint and liability standpoint. If they want you to do something "extra" like add another circuit on top of what you've already done, you go and get a contract modification first, before doing any work.

Otherwise, you end up being the one left without a chair after the music's stopped.

[Sidewinder]

Thank you for confirming that yes, a human life is indeed worth less than a properly-done rewiring job in Ayn Rand World.

More to the point; where are you going to put the troops while you tear apart and re-wire the building(s) they were occupying?

In tents. Or did the Army not have enough tents to put up 20,000 (2003) to 180,000 (2008) troops?

Basically, I just think the Army took a look at the statistics of the thing, and decided that miswired or non-existent grounds weren't enough of a danger to constitute a teardown of the place; because statistically, unless you do something very stupid, the chances of a nongrounded receptacle electrocuting you is very low.

Sounds like a typical bureaucratic decision made on the basis of bean counting and ignorant of the greater costs of NOT fixing the problems, i.e., costs of medical services and, if the service member dies, paying the Service member's Group Life Insurance and for the funeral.

[SirNitram]

I'm not buying the 'KBR just followed contracts to the letter' excuse. It might work in a vacuum, where no previous wrongdoing was substantiated, but we are talking about a group with gang-rape and human-trafficking in it's service of the State Department.

Bad wiring from a company with a good track record is forgivable. KBR, however, are not a fucking company with even a modest track record.

[MKSheppard]

Sounds like a typical bureaucratic decision made on the basis of bean counting and ignorant of the greater costs of NOT fixing the problems, i.e., costs of medical services and, if the service member dies, paying the Service member's Group Life Insurance and for the funeral.

It does bring to mind the scene from Fight Club:

A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.