Southern California Edison Worker Electrocuted In Paramount

PARAMOUNT (CBSLA.com) — A Southern California Edison worker was killed in Paramount after neighbors say he appeared to have slipped and fallen onto live, electrical wires.

The incident happened at the corner of Jefferson Street and California Avenue around 5 p.m. Wednesday.

A resident who declined an on-camera interview said his wife called the utility company around 3 p.m. to report an outage.

He said they watched the man climb to the top of a power pole and say he later slipped it appeared and fell on a line.

The man said the worker was hanging there for about 40 minutes until they could de-energize those lines and safely get him down.

"All the guys were there around him trying to get him down. Edison guys were very responsive and very sad and it was very emotional," said Veronica Guzman, a distraught witness.

Guzman said power had gone out at at least one home as the storm blew through.

Edison received a service-related call around 5:20 p.m. and workers went out to work on the power.

SCE spokesman Steve Conroy said they're investigating what happened, but said workers prepared for all kinds of weather conditions.

"They go through a lot of different training, their equipment, what they wear, how what they wear changes out. But they are highly trained, highly skilled. They know what their job is and how to stay safe," Conroy said.

Coworkers raced to the scene. The death hit the SCE family hard.

"He is one of the Edison family. Obviously, we're heartbroken this evening," Conroy said.

The incident remains under investigation.

"Again, the investigation is underway. We don't know what happened. We just don't know," Conroy stressed.

The identity of the employee has not been released pending notification of next of kin.