Berbice man electrocuted while picking cherries

The police are investigating the death of Lalchan Deonarine called “Burnham” of Seawell Village, East Canje Berbice, who was reportedly electrocuted early Friday morning.
At the home of the deceased, relatives and friends gathered Friday playing cards, and lending a hand to tidying up the premises as more relative arrived after hearing the news. Deonarine’s pregnant 14-year- old daughter recalled the final moments of her father just before he tragically died.
She explained that her father was lying in the hammock under their house while she and others were in the kitchen nearby.
Deonarine then asked his wife Taramatee for something to eat and was told that the rice was being cooked at the time. He then got up and proceeded towards the front neighbour’s cherry tree which is close to his fence to pick a few cherries, the teenager related.
Moments later, they heard the deceased screamed “Ow me mammy”, and when they looked out, they saw him wrapped under his arms and around his body with binding wire and lying on the ground.

There was a heavy early morning downpour and high wind that knocked down an antenna pole attached to a house next door. The metal pole fell and rested on the fence and the cherry tree. Portion of the fine binding wire used to hold the apparatus rested across the exposed electrical wire that connected the relatives’ house to the GPL pole along the road.
The deceased, who was in the habit of plucking cherries at the nearby fence daily, reportedly became entangled in the wire which was concealed in the grass in that section of the yard, and fell.
An electrician residing nearby was able to remove the wire and free the entangled Deonarine, but it was too late. The ground was water soaked and he had fallen down and became even more entangled.
The electricity burnt the man’s body around the back and abdomen, leaving deep cuts and causing him to bleed through his mouth. Deonarine succumbed while being rushed to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
Deonarine was unemployed at the time, having sustained a back injury while working at GuySuCo as a planter about five years ago. He has being doing odd jobs and trapping fish with a net to help support his wife’s efforts as a domestic worker to sustain his three children.
The family had only settled down recently after having to deal with the impregnation of their 14-year-old daughter reportedly by a grown man who sells cake in the area. The deceased had reportedly evicted his wife from the house over the issue.
Deonarine leaves to mourn four children: Totoram, Bhanmatti, Mala and Deveshkar and his wife Urmella. Totoram, the eldest is said to be living and working in Trinidad and Tobago.
The body of Deonarine is at the New Amsterdam Hospital Mortuary awaiting a post-mortem examination.