SANTA ROSA EMPLOYEE DIES AFTER BEING ELECTROCUTED WHILE ON THE JOB

The Santa Rosa Water employee who died Wednesday after he was electrocuted while on the job was a veteran within the department and a Santa Rosa resident, officials said Friday.

Daryl Clark, 58, worked for the city’s water department for 12 years and was a water systems technician based out of Santa Rosa’s Laguna Wastewater Treatment Plant, said Adriane Mertens, a city of Santa Rosa spokeswoman.

He was tasked with maintaining the 41-mile pipeline that ran from the Laguna plant to the Calpine steam fields in The Geysers, which uses steam from recycled water to generate clean energy, said Jennifer Burke, the director of Santa Rosa’s Water Department.

He played an important role during the Kincade fire, when he monitored the fire’s path and kept an eye out for signs of damage to the pipeline, Burke said.

“Everyone thought highly of him,” Burke said. “Our thoughts and hearts are with his family.”

Clark was working on an piece of electrified equipment ― an energized subpanel — at the plant when he was electrocuted and died at about 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the state agency that investigates serious workplace injuries and deaths.

A subpanel is used to add more circuit breakers in a separate space from the main breaker panel.

The work was not new for Clark, who was an electrician’s mate in the Navy before he moved to Sonoma County, where his wife was from, a quarter century ago, said Melissa Bosanco, Clark’s daughter.

He met his wife and her four kids while he was stationed in Idaho and the couple married in 1983. Clark immediately took on the role of a loving father to Bosanco and her siblings, she said.

Clark was known as a bookworm, a techie and a “tinkerer” who enjoyed learning how things worked and who preferred to build things himself over buying them already made, Bosanco said.

His 12 grandchildren and five great grandchildren brought him immense joy.

“They would just crack him up,” Bosanco said. “He was this military, technical kind of guy that would just come in and do the goofiest stuff with the babies.”

Clark’s death has been devastating for his family, but they were thankful for the support they’ve received from community members thus far, Bosanco said. Funeral arraignments were still being made Friday night, she added.

Cal/OSHA is investigating Clark’s death, as is the city of Santa Rosa and the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.