In a press briefing held this Wednesday, senior leadership of the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA) confirmed a devastating pair of workplace incidents that have left one experienced linesman dead and another in need of urgent specialized medical care off-island.
Andre Mathias, who heads APUA’s Electricity Business Unit, shared the tragic news with reporters, confirming that the first fatality was a young linesman who passed away just a few days prior. Extending formal condolences on behalf of the entire APUA organization, Mathias expressed the agency’s solidarity with the worker’s grieving family, though he declined to share further personal identifying details or the specific circumstances that led to the worker’s death out of respect for the family’s privacy.
The second affected worker, a linesman publicly identified only by his first name Walter and his nickname “Paulo,” was evacuated from Antigua via air ambulance to Martinique to access advanced medical treatment that is not currently available locally. At the time of the press conference, Mathias did not disclose any update on the injured worker’s current condition, nor would he elaborate on whether the two incidents occurred at the same worksite or during the same maintenance or construction operation.
The tragedy marks a somber moment for Antigua’s public utilities sector, where frontline linesmen routinely carry out high-risk work to maintain and repair the country’s critical electrical infrastructure for residential and commercial users across the island.