Photo: Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power today will hold a five-minute ``Stand Down'' for its entire department in honor of an employee who died earlier this month from injuries sustained while working on a project at Terminal Island.
The ``Stand Down'' will begin at 10:52 a.m., and all DWP work will pause for five minutes to honor Mike Lemestre, who died on Nov. 4. The Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners will have a special meting at 10:30 a.m. to observe the ``Stand Down'' and provide preceding remarks, along with DWP executive management, IBEW Local 18 leadership and Lemestre's family and friends.
Lemestre died after coming into contact with an energized circuit in an underground vault while working as part of a cable splicing crew at Terminal Island. He was pulled from the vault by co-workers, who tried to revive him with CPR before the Los Angeles Fire Department arrived and took Lemestre to a hospital.
During the five-minute ``Stand Down'' Thursday, workers will be asked to stop working to reflect on the importance of their work, which DWP described as often vital and hazardous.
The DWP released a statement after Lemestre's death saying, ``This tragic incident serves as a reminder that the work many LADWP employees perform on a daily basis to keep our City running can be hazardous.''