A 25 year-old man has suffered serious burns after cutting through a high-voltage underground cable on Wharf Road on Thursday morning.
Emergency services were called to the scene around 11am, where they found a man who appeared to have been electrocuted by underground power while laying communication cables in an inspection pit.
The man suffered burns to his chest, shoulders and face and was transported to John Hunter Hospital, where his condition was stable on Thursday evening.
The accident caused around 800 homes in parts of Newcastle and Newcastle East to lose power for several hours from around 11am. Power was later restored to most of the area, with the exception of continuing outages on Wharf Road.
Safe Work arrived on the scene to investigate the incident and had issued notices to the communication company that employed the worker on Thursday afternoon. Ausgrid has said that the immediate area will remain isolated while Safe Work undertake their inquiries. Around seven customers were still without power at around 1.45pm.
Ausgrid’s online estimates indicated crews were working to restore power by around 5.30pm.
The Newcastle Museum was temporarily closed as a result of the outage but had reopened around 1pm after power was restored to the area. One person was safely rescued from an elevator on Argyle Street by NSW Fire and Rescue.
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Simon McCarthy
Simon McCarthy is a journalist working at the Newcastle Herald in NSW. He writes news and features, and produces video and multimedia, for the Herald and Herald Weekender magazine. He contributes regularly to the Newcastle Herald’s daily Topics column, and is the co-creator and producer of the Toohey’s News podcast. McCarthy has worked as a journalist in regional NSW since 2013. He joined the newsroom of the Newcastle Herald in 2017 from the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he worked from 2015 to 2016.
Simon McCarthy is a journalist working at the Newcastle Herald in NSW. He writes news and features, and produces video and multimedia, for the Herald and Herald Weekender magazine. He contributes regularly to the Newcastle Herald’s daily Topics column, and is the co-creator and producer of the Toohey’s News podcast. McCarthy has worked as a journalist in regional NSW since 2013. He joined the newsroom of the Newcastle Herald in 2017 from the Northern Daily Leader in Tamworth where he worked from 2015 to 2016.
