93 year old man dies because hydro was turned off

[Saffi]

~This is damn disgusting and the city should be sued.Why was this man not taken in by some authority for protection rather then denying him a necessity of life....93 years old who paid taxes all his life to die a slow excruciating death because of greed.What ever happened to respecting and taking care of our elders~


93-year-old freezes to death at home after utility firm limits power use



By The Associated Press


BAY CITY, Mich. - A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills, officials said.

Marvin Schur died "a slow, painful death," said Kanu Virani, Oakland County's deputy chief medical examiner, who performed the autopsy.

Neighbours discovered Schur's body on Jan. 17. They said the indoor temperature was below zero Celsius at the time, the Bay City Times reported Monday.

"Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly," Virani said. "It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning."

Schur owed Bay City Electric Light & Power more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills, Bay City manager Robert Belleman told The Associated Press on Monday.

A city utility worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at Schur's home on Jan. 13, Belleman said. The device limits power reaching a home and blows out like a fuse if consumption rises past a set level. Power is not restored until the device is reset.

The limiter was tripped sometime between the time of installation and the discovery of Schur's body, Belleman said. He didn't know if anyone had made personal contact with Schur to explain how the device works.

Schur's body was discovered by neighbour George Pauwels.

"His furnace was not running, the insides of his windows were full of ice the morning we found him," Pauwels told the newspaper.

Belleman said city workers keep the limiter on houses for 10 days, then shut off power entirely if the homeowner hasn't paid utility bills or arranged to do so.

He said Bay City Electric Light & Power's policies will be reviewed, but he didn't believe the city did anything wrong.

"I've said this before and some of my colleagues have said this: Neighbours need to keep an eye on neighbours," Belleman said. "When they think there's something wrong, they should contact the appropriate agency or city department."

Schur had no children and his wife had died several years ago.

Bay City is on Saginaw Bay, just north of the city of Saginaw in central Michigan.

[Davagator]

I was just reading this on another website.      How terribly sad.

"The device limits power reaching the home and blows out like a fuse if more than allowed is drained. Power is not restored until the device is reset."

   Even if it can be reset, they shouldn't expect a 93 year old man to have to out in the freezing cold to reset the damn thing.  Bay City Manager Robert Belleman should be ashamed of himself and beg for forgiveness for being such a lame human. 

[blueyes]

It is so sad. This
world is going to hell in a hand basket

[Sirfixalot]

Poor fellow was a WW vet, had no family...but like many people his age probably wanted to still be independant.The fact this happened in the USA, the supposed richest country in the world...should it really surprise anyone now a days. Bailed out companies still buying fancy jets, going on retreats, fancy carpets for offices, while the average man freezes to death over what they spend on a couple of lunches. Maybe Brad and Angie could adopt some elderly. Greed murders

[Windmill]

This was not a private owned company, rather a municipal business.  Not a contracted employer that installed the inhibitor, a city worker.

Nice local government at work.

[Nazarene4Life]

this is totally not rite...... why did he not live in a place wehre they would help him... if he had family im shocked they didnt help him