See Update No. 2 at the end of this post about who the late Daniel Pohl was working for at Mission Viejo High School. Update No. 1 identified Pohl as the deceased.
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 18, 9:44 A.M.: A man in his early 20s was electrocuted and a second was badly shocked during a construction accident at Mission Viejo High School Thursday afternoon.
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Neither victim has been identified.
They were putting up scaffolding to hang a banner at the school's athletic field around 3 p.m. when the deceased came in contact with electrical lines, according to Orange County Fire Authority Captain Steve Concialdi.
The second worker came to his aid, but after he climbed onto the scaffolding, he was shocked and thrown 30 feet onto the ground, Concialdi explained. The first man was declared dead at the scene, and the second was in serious condition at Mission Hospital, where he was taken with severe burns and injuries from the fall.
Saddleback Valley Unified School District spokeswoman Tammy Blakely told The Orange County Register the project the crew was working on was not authorized by the district. The accident is being investigated by Cal/OSHA.
UPDATE NO. 1, JULY 21, 8:16 A.M.: The county coroner has identified Daniel James Pohl, 23, of Apple Valley, as the crew member who was killed Thursday afternoon at Mission Viejo High School.
He was part of a three-man crew with Five Star Plastering that was hanging a banner, but school district officials are not sure who hired them.
UPDATE NO. 2, JULY 22, 12:52 P.M.: Daniel Pohl, the construction worker electrocuted at Mission Viejo High School last week, was hanging a banner promoting an upcoming game for a member of the football team's booster club, a club official told the Orange County Register today.
One problem: the booster did not have the permission of the club or school district to hang the banner, according to Kevin Bland, president of the Diablos booster club.
As we previously reported, Kohl was employed by Five Star Plastering, which is owned by Tom Blythe, who is vice president of the Diablos booster club.
The large banner was meant to promote a football game honoring the armed forces.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.