$30 circuit breaker could have averted electrocution death at concert.

Publication: The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2003 The Charlotte Observer

Byline: Jeff South

CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ An extra-sensitive circuit breaker, an inexpensive device required in homes but not concert venues, would have prevented the electrocution of a college student at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre this month, safety experts say.

Because of accidents such as the June 6 death of Ashley Faris, the devices, called ground fault circuit interrupters, probably will be required on wiring installed in commercial outdoor areas beginning in 2005.

GFCIs, which cost $15 to $60 per circuit, automatically cut the power if they sense an electrical short _ such as the one in the lighting system that killed Faris, 26, on a wet stairway at the concert.

If the amphitheater had had a GFCI, "that person would be alive today," said John Drengenberg, consumer affairs manager for Underwriters Laboratories, a nonprofit organization that tests products and sets safety standards.

Clear Channel Entertainment, which owns the 12-year-old amphitheater in northeast Charlotte, has been installing GFCIs in its other concert venues, said Gerald Harvell, Mecklenburg, N.C.'s chief electrical inspector. "That's what they told me. They're putting them in...

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