House probes electrocutions of soldiers
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A U.S. House committee chairman has begun an investigation into the accidental electrocutions of at least 12 service members in Iraq, including the January death of a Pennsylvania soldier killed by a jolt of electricity while showering.
Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to hand over all documents relating to the military’s management of electrical systems at facilities in Iraq.
Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a 24-year-old soldier from Pittsburgh who was serving his second deployment in Iraq, died Jan. 2 of cardiac arrest after being electrocuted while showering at his barracks in Baghdad.
Maseth’s mother, Cheryl Harris of Cranberry Township, said she welcomes the investigation.
“I expected that if I lost one of my sons [in the war], it would be due to an IED or firefight,” Harris told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “I never expected to hear he would be electrocuted, that something so senseless happened to him.”
Maseth’s parents on Wednesday filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Allegheny County Court against KBR Inc., the Houston-based contractor responsible for maintaining Maseth’s barracks.