BEL promotes building safety
Tragedies are never pleasant to report but the folks at BEL are hoping that the reporting of one recent incident will shock the public into being more careful in how they put up buildings. Jose Sanchez has more.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
A week ago, a sixteen-year old boy was seriously injured when he accidentally touched a high-tension wire, while working on the construction of a house in the Belama area. Belize Electricity LTD’s Planning and Engineering Manager explained that when people get close to high voltage, they are putting their life in danger.
Joseph Sukhnandan, Planning/Engineering Manager, BEL
“What has happened recently is that many houses are been built. As those houses get higher they are close to the high-tension lines. When construction workers are working on the line, what you find is that they either get too close to the line or they have metallic equipment in their hands that causes them to either touch the lines and get hurt or the metallic objects in their hands causes an arc which can also hurt you.”
BEL recommends that whenever building a house close the lines, the customer should call them so that the company may make an inspection. If it is unsafe, BEL will relocate the high-tension line. But electrical problems can occur inside the home as well as on the lamppost.
Joseph Sukhnandan
“We have a low voltage conductor that goes into the customer’s premises, the customers meter. That is as dangerous as the high voltage line that has its own safety precautions, which customers should take. If there is water around customers should not be touching any wire.”
In the rainy season, water can compound electrical problems. The Commercial Center, which houses the Family Court, today experienced a nasty mix of rain water and an abundant power which shorted out a computer. It seems that the garbage bag strapped on the window did little to help.
But what first appeared to be a just a problem with a leaky roof became more serious when people are added to the mix. Mr. Sukhnandan pointed out that although voltage inside a home range from one hundred and twenty to two hundred and forty volts, it can take only fifty volts to kill. So, if someone had turned on the light switch in this room, they could have been injured. Luckily the lights had shorted out during previous rains.
Meanwhile, the proprietor of another building across the swing bridge, was tackling problems before they became dangerous.
Oscar Sabido, Building Owner
“Well, we saw that there was going to be a problem with the wires. So we got in touch with BEL and requested that they move the wires away from the building and they said that they can do that.”
“It took about six months. And it delayed the building a lot. But eventually it was done. And we did not do anything until the wires were removed away from the building, so that it was safe for the construction to continue. And that’s what happened. So we had to make sure that there was no accidents and we wanted to comply with all the regulations.”
Joseph Sukhnandan
“This is one example where BEL has come back and we have fixed it. What we have done is that we have moved the line as you can see away from the house. And we have also put up an insulated conductor along this piece of line here. There still doing construction and if someone would still go and accidentally touch the line, because the line is now insulated it poses a much less risk. But we’ve taken a bigger precaution by moving the line away from the building.”
The most important thing to remember concerning electricity and power lines is that if you don’t know, call BEL or get a qualified electrician. Reporting for News Five, I am Jose Sanchez.
If you need information on how to best deal with electrical problems associated with your construction project call BEL at 0-800-BEL-CARE.
