At just before 10 p.m., Thomas Kikas Jr., 19, of Middle River in Baltimore County, was working to restore power to four homes in the 200 block of Berrywood Drive when he was shocked by a hot line. He was working in a 3-foot-deep hole he had dug when he lost consciousness, county police said.

A co-worker pulled Mr. Kikas from the hole and attempted to revive him. Mr. Kikas was taken by ambulance to Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, and was pronounced dead at 10:50 p.m.

Mr. Kikas was part of a relief crew that was digging for underground cables in search of the broken wire that had caused outages in the community, said Leo Sniger, president of New Jersey-based Riggs Distler & Co. His crew came in at 5 p.m. to relieve a team that had been working at the site all day.

The relief crew found the faulty cable and Mr. Kikas and an "experienced crew leader" were working side-by-side to repair the break when the accident occurred, Mr. Sniger said.

Mr. Kikas was an electrician trainee who had been working for the company since January. He had completed initial testing and was involved in classroom and on-the-job training to try to advance in the company.

Mr. Sniger said the man was "under complete supervision" Saturday night. He said the company is investigating how and why the accident took place.

"They were aware the cables were energized," he said.

Mr. Kikas was wearing the required fire resistant clothing, including dielectric safety boots that do not conduct electricity and high voltage gloves.

The company believes the hot, muggy weather may have contributed to the fatal shock.

"One of the possible causes is when it's as hot as it was and the men are perspiring, water conducts electricity," Mr. Sniger said. "If for some reason he touched an energized line, even brushing it with his arm by accident, he'd be a conductor."

Maryland Occupational Safety and Health officials are investigating the accident, said Rhonda Wardlaw, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. She would not comment further because the investigation is ongoing.

Police said Mr. Kikas slipped and

fell into the hole, coming into contact with the live wire at the bottom. However, Mr. Sniger said the company is not positive he fell.

"That is one of the current theories, that he somehow slipped down into the hole onto the wire," he said. "But we're not sure of that. That's just one thing that's currently being investigated."

He said the foreman working alongside Mr. Kikas "literally turned towards his truck for a moment, heard a noise and turned around."

"How he got down there, we're not sure," Mr. Sniger said. "So it's speculation that he might have slipped. We do put rubber insulated mats on the ground and those mats themselves can become slippery."

It's also possible the man touched the wire from above ground and fell into the shallow hole after he was shocked, he said.

Mr. Sniger and other members of Riggs Distler went to the Middle River home of Mr. Kikas' family to offer their condolences yesterday. The company also has offered to handle funeral costs for the family.

The company has never lost an employee in a work-related accident in its 99-year history.

"These are very unusual events," Mr. Sniger said.

He said the company is trying to learn from this tragic accident.

"Anytime you have an incident you try to learn from it, what it is, what caused it, and what you can do next time to prevent it," he said. "We're looking at all those items to see how to drive out this type of incident. We're reenforcing training and policies."

Mr. Kikas was the youngest of seven children and also worked as a volunteer firefighter at Bowleys Quarters Volunteer Fire Department, according to his Web page on myspace.com.

His family did not return phone calls.