Man electrocuted, woman badly burned; police allege attempted wire theft

LOS ANGELES -- The family of a father of two who was killed when an electric vault exploded on a vacant lot said today the man had been hired to maintain the property and was not stealing copper wire, as police allege.
Jose Fernando Santillanes, 36, of Lynwood, was killed at 4:14 p.m. Saturday when he apparently triggered an explosion and flash fire on a vacant lot at 3064 Firestone Blvd., while his 3-year-old daughter and a 9-year-old son were in a truck about 15 feet away, said South Gate police Lt. Keith Hupp.
Maria Cortez, 33, was critically burned while trying to pull Santillanes away from the vault. She was being treated at the Grossman Burn Center, he said.
The man's family told a television station that Santillanes had been hired to clean up the vacant lot on a regular basis, but police asserted they had evidence that he was trying to steal copper from the vault.
"The lady was just screaming 'my husband, my husband,'" neighbor Karla Hernandez told a television station. "The children were crying. And then we heard two more explosions."
Hupp described the scene as "pretty ugly."
"We actually had to knock down the fence to try to get over there," witness Raul Rivera reportedly said. "So we were just knocking down the fence until we got there, but it was too late."
The children were taken into protective custody and later turned over to an aunt in Lynwood, Hupp said.
"Copper theft has been a problem for the past several years due to the high value of copper," Hupp told a news station. "Unfortunately sometimes people don't know when wires are live, and these were definitely live."
The blast at the former Liberty Cable Co. site also caused an electrical outage in the immediate area, but service was restored to most customers within a few hours.