Task force re-inspecting U.S. facilities in Iraq for faulty wiring

Spc. Marcus O. Nolasco was electrocuted while showering at this facility on Forward Operating Base Summerall, Beiji, Iraq, on May 18, 2004. The Defense Department has created a task force to inspect all facilities in Iraq after more than a dozen U.S. troops have been electrocuted. Included in the list are thousands of facilities whose electrical work was completed by defense contractor KBR.


Task force re-inspecting U.S. facilities in Iraq for faulty wiring
By Lisa Novak, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, November 1, 2009

An Army task force re-inspecting thousands of potentially unsafe U.S. facilities in Iraq for faulty electrical wiring says a contractor previously ordered to conduct inspections of its own work placed 5,600 facilities on a “deferred” list — meaning they were low priority or there were no plans to inspect them.

Officials with the Defense Department’s 135-member Task Force SAFE said many of the buildings on KBR’s deferred list were still being used by soldiers. As a result, the task force moved these facilities to the top of its inspection list, according to a Sept. 8 internal memo.

Sixteen U.S. troops and two contractors were electrocuted — and hundreds more incurred shock-related injuries — in Iraq over a span of four years, prompting the Defense Department to create the task force last year to physically inspect every military facility in the country, the majority of which were provided by KBR. Additionally, the Defense Contract Management Agency directed KBR to inspect all 75,000 of its facilities, a process that began last February.

But Multi-National Forces–Iraq let KBR either postpone or abandon site inspections because of confusion surrounding the status of the thousands of facilities, a military official said.

The Army said the deferred list is intended for facilities not likely to be used, that have been abandoned, are about to be turned over to the Iraqi government or are located in sensitive areas.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65784