State investigators released their final report on an underground fire that killed an APS employee in downtown Phoenix last summer.
Ricardo “Rico” Castillo, a 12-year employee of APS, was killed in the fire and a second employee was injured. The incident happened under First Avenue and Washington Streets in downtown Phoenix on June 30, 2019.
The fire was described as an explosion and firefighters found a "large amount of fire" coming from an APS manhole when they arrived on the scene just after 10:30 p.m. that Sunday night.
According to a new report from the Arizona Industrial Commission, which oversees worksite safety, APS did not violate any safety standards.
Instead, the report found Castillo mistakenly touched the wrong line.
"Through our investigation, it was determined that [Castillo] grabbed the live wire thinking that was the de-energized wire to work on," Commission spokesperson Trevor Laky told 12 News.