Man burned in Boston manhole explosion has long road to recovery
BOSTON - Domingos Pires says he's now left to pray for his oldest son Fabio who is in a medically induced coma after being burned on the job while working in a manhole on Bowdoin Street in Boston Tuesday. "It's really hard to see what happened," Pires tells WBZ-TV.
He recalls the flash that has his son fighting for his life. "He was turned around to pick something up, to do something, and something blew on his back not face to face," he said.
The 31-year-old Eversource employee was doing routine maintenance with a co-worker when the equipment malfunctioned causing an explosion that sent flames and thick smoke billowing out of the manhole.
"He was burned mostly in the back, arms and legs," Pires said.
In the hospital they can only see his face where he's undergoing two grueling surgeries. His father hopes his strength will pull Fabio through. Described as a gentle giant and an avid body builder, Domingos Pires believes it's the only way his son managed to crawl out of the hole and survive.
"That helped him a lot to be able to crawl up and get some fresh air," Pires said. "That is strong."
On the job for a couple of years, his father says Fabio was a skilled electrician who often took overtime shifts like he did on Tuesday. He had recently encouraged his son to take a vacation with him.
"I've been telling him 'Hey can we go, it can't wait we have to go,'" Pires said.
He says all he can do now is hope, while local, state and federal investigators try to determine the cause of the explosion. "He loved his job, loved what he was doing, that's what he chose to do," Pires said.
