PEPCO Worker Critically Injured From Electric Shock

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Authorities say that two PEPCO workers were injured while working in an electrical vault in a busy section of Washington, DC.

D.C. Deputy Fire Chief Ken Crosswhite says the two men were contract employees working in an outdoor electrical vault when they came in contact with a secondary underground cable in downtown DC's busy Dupont Circle area. Crosswhite says one man was critically burned and the other suffered smoke inhalation.

Crosswhite says the vault contains various feeds of high voltage. No power outages were reported.

Traffic in the area is being redirected because parts of 19th Street and the Dupont traffic circle have been closed.