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

A 93-year-old Bay City, Michigan man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills.

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. 2009. They said the indoor temperature was below zero (celsius) at the time, the Bay City Times reported on 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 had 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.

This is totally ridiculous! companies looking at profits/losses before the health and well being of another human being! They don't shut off the power until spring time (when he can sit outside) if your account is in arrears. It seems to me if his account was that badly off, and he's obviously and elderly man on a limited income, the company should have made some sort of an arrangement with him HE'S 93 YEARS OLD FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!

Did they take into consideration that the person The guy might not have had a functioning phone if his electricity was cut. How was he supposed to call 911?

And what was his level of functioning? At 93, he might not have been too sharp.

Someone was not on the ball.

I'm all for making a profit, and I'm all for governmental non-regulation, but the company should have stepped back and asked itself what it could have done. Maybe it was an accident that the device didn't work....

Thoughts?