7 BWSSB workers suffer burns

Seven BWSSB employees were admitted to the St John’s Hospital on Friday, a day after they suffered varying degrees of burns while carrying out repair works at the TK Halli pumping station in Mandya district.

The workers, among them an assistant engineer, had suffered electric shocks while trying to cut the “breakers” located close to the transformers around 5.30 pm on Thursday.

Suddenly, there was a flash and a fire broke out.

Some of the employees were identified as Karthik (assistant engineer), P Nagaraju, Anil Kumar, Nandeesh and contract worker Shivaprakash.

The employees were rushed to a hospital in Malavalli before being taken to the Vagus hospital in Malleswaram. It was only on Friday afternoon that they were shifted to the burns ward of the St John’s Hospital, BWSSB Chairman Tushar Girinath said. He added that the utility agency would bear all the medical expenses of the employees.

Dr Sanjeev Lewin, the chief of medical services at St John’s National Academy of Medical Sciences, said four employees had sustained over 40% burns and were being treated in the ICU. Three others had suffered about 20% burns.

“The next 48 hours are very crucial for these patients as they will be prone to infections. These employees are from a poor background and the incident is rather very unfortunate,” the doctor added.