Another hazard in Iraq: shoddy electrical work on U.S. bases

WASHINGTON — Shoddy electrical work by private contractors on U.S. military bases in Iraq is widespread and dangerous, causing more deaths and injuries from fires and shocks than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to internal Army documents.

During just one six-month period — August 2006 through January 2007 — at least 283 electrical fires destroyed or damaged U.S. military facilities in Iraq, including the military's largest dining hall in the country, documents show. Two soldiers died in an electrical fire at their base near Tikrit in 2006, the records note, while another was injured while jumping from a burning guard tower in May 2007.

And while the Pentagon has previously reported that 13 Americans have been electrocuted in Iraq, many more have been injured, some seriously, by shocks, according to the documents. A log compiled earlier this year at one building complex in Baghdad disclosed that soldiers complained of receiving electrical shocks in their living quarters on an almost-daily basis.

Electrical problems were the most urgent noncombat safety hazard for soldiers in Iraq, according to an Army survey issued in February 2007.

The Army report said KBR, the Houston-based company that is responsible for providing basic services for U.S. troops in Iraq, including housing, did its own study and found a "systemic problem" with electrical work.

But the Pentagon did little to address the issue until a Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, was electrocuted in January while showering. His death, caused by poor electrical grounding, drew the attention of lawmakers and Pentagon leaders after his family pushed for answers. Congress and the Pentagon's inspector general have begun investigations, and this month senior Army officials ordered electrical inspections of all buildings in Iraq maintained by KBR.

In the statement, Ingrid Harrison, an official with the Defense Contract Management Agency, disclosed that an electrical fire caused by poor wiring in a nearby building two weeks before Maseth's death had endangered two other soldiers.

"The soldiers were lucky because the one window that they could reach did not have bars on it, or there could have been two other fatalities," Harrison said in the statement.

Harrison said that KBR officials also knew of widespread electrical problems at the Radwaniya Palace Complex, near Baghdad's airport, where Maseth died. "KBR has been at RPC for over four years and was fully aware of the safety hazards, violations and concerns regarding the soldiers' housing," she said in the statement. She added that the contractor "chose to ignore the known unsafe conditions."

Since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, tens of thousands of U.S. troops have been housed in Iraqi buildings that date from the Saddam Hussein era. KBR and other contractors have been paid millions of dollars to repair and upgrade the buildings, including their electrical systems. KBR officials say they handle the maintenance for 4,000 structures and an additional 35,000 containers used as housing in the war zone.

The reports of shoddy electrical work have raised new questions about the Bush administration's heavy reliance on contractors in Iraq, particularly because they come after other high-profile disputes involving KBR. They include accusations of overbilling, providing unsafe water to soldiers and failing to protect female employees who were sexually assaulted.

Some of the electrical work was turned over to subcontractors, some of which hired unskilled Iraqis who were paid only a few dollars a day. Government officials responsible for contract oversight, meanwhile, were also unable to keep up, so that unsafe electrical work was not challenged by government auditors.

One report showed that during a four-day period in late February, soldiers at a Baghdad compound reported being shocked while taking showers in different buildings.

In late June, an electrical fire at a Marine base in Fallujah destroyed 10 buildings.