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Updated: Man killed in explosion is named
2:52pm Friday 9th May 2008
THE MAN who died in a fire after an electricity sub-station exploded has been named.
John Higgins, 59, was killed after the fire took hold in Bishop Hall Lane, close to the Rivermead campus of the Anglia Ruskin University, in Chelmsford, at about 12.15pm on Wednesday.
The fire left thousands of homes in Chelmsford without power and 8,000 university students had to be evacuated as a 200-metre exclusion zone was set up around the site.
A post-mortem carried out today showed he died of burns and an inhalation of toxic gases.
The family of Mr Higgins, who lived in Albany Road, West Bergholt, said in a joint statement that his death had been a "pointless loss of life".
They added: "We are devastated by the loss of John, a wonderful loving husband, son, father, grandfather, brother, and a good friend to so many.
"John has left a huge hole in our lives which will never be filled.
"He was looking forward to a well-deserved early retirement with his wife Sheila in six months time and had absolutely everything to live for."
The family thanked the Police for their support throughout the ordeal.
They added they would be "following the investigation very closely as we need to comprehend the circumstances that led to this horrific incident."
Your Say YourChelmsford
rosemary, clacton says...
4:51pm Wed 7 May 08
Neil, Chelmsford says...
5:21pm Wed 7 May 08
Yes, I go to a secondary school near the substation, we were evacuated.
I was also shocked to hear of the death, and the family of the man who died will be in my thoughts tonight.
Adrain, Chelmsford says...
5:30pm Wed 7 May 08
Sue, Essex says...
6:32pm Wed 7 May 08
APR, Benfleet says...
7:28pm Wed 7 May 08
Andy, Rayleigh says...
9:48pm Wed 7 May 08
Chris, Chelmsford says...
11:46pm Wed 7 May 08
Sad to hear about the EDF employee who died, my thoughts are with his family and friends. Hopefully this will prompt some research into better safety at high-voltage installations like this to prevent a tragic accident happening again.
Tony, Lincoln says...
8:38am Thu 8 May 08
My thoughts goes out to the family and friends of the one man who died.
Optimist, Essex says...
10:38am Thu 8 May 08
We really do take them for granted don't we and our government/home office
treat them with contempt.
S, Norfolk says...
12:40pm Thu 8 May 08
guy, Leigh-On-Sea says...
1:08pm Thu 8 May 08
Andy wrote:Don't be so boring, who cares if its watts, volts or anything else one person has died and lots of premises lost power and all you care about is whether its volts, watts, kilovolts etc.
That is almost certainly 132 Kilovolts (KV) not 132 Kilowatts (KW) ... if several thousand premises were being supplied the power needed would be in the Megawatts range.
Sophie, Chelmsford says...
5:19pm Sat 10 May 08
William, says...
4:35pm Mon 12 May 08
Tony wrote:Yes, EDF have BIG problems. It's time we took the distribution companies back into public ownership.
There have been far too many fatalities during the last few months wihin the eastern electricity area since EDF took on the business from Eastern Electricity.
My thoughts goes out to the family and friends of the one man who died.
From my understanding he was manually winding a live on-load tap-changer.
Obviously, something wrong with the equipment in the first instance to have to do this manually (why was the telecontrol or remote control not working?). Then obviously, a catastrophic failure with the mechanism itself.
Such a pointless waste of life. Let's hope the H&S get to the bottom of this and real lessons are learned.
John, London says...
5:24pm Thu 15 May 08
William wrote:Paul Cuttill is the man in charge at EDF Energy whilst all 4 deaths have occurred, surely it's time for him to resign and be held accountable for his responsibilities.
Tony wrote: There have been far too many fatalities during the last few months wihin the eastern electricity area since EDF took on the business from Eastern Electricity. My thoughts goes out to the family and friends of the one man who died.Yes, EDF have BIG problems. It\'s time we took the distribution companies back into public ownership. From my understanding he was manually winding a live on-load tap-changer. Obviously, something wrong with the equipment in the first instance to have to do this manually (why was the telecontrol or remote control not working?). Then obviously, a catastrophic failure with the mechanism itself. Such a pointless waste of life. Let\'s hope the H&S get to the bottom of this and real lessons are learned.
Shirley, Chelmsford says...
12:06pm Fri 16 May 08
Your sayYourChelmsford
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rose, brentwood says...
4:47pm Wed 7 May 08