KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — Two Japanese contract workers were injured here Wednesday while doing electrical work near Gate 5.

Three men were working on replacing underground electric wiring about 3:50 p.m. in the Jennings Housing Area when an electrical explosion occurred, according to a statement from the 18th Wing Public Affairs office. They had been working on a connection to a 13,000-volt junction box.

Two of the workers, both 47, were taken to Chubu Tokushukai Hospital in Okinawa City. One had serious burns on his face, both hands and legs, according to an Okinawa prefectural police spokesman. The other man was treated for minor burns on his right arm and right leg.

The third man was not injured, according to the police spokesman.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, according to the 18th Wing news release.

The electrical accident was the third involving Japanese workers on the base this year, the police spokesman said. One of them, on Aug. 29, electrocuted a Japanese contractor.

He was loading tree trunks onto a truck as part of a tree-removal project near Bob Hope Elementary School when the boom of a crane he was operating touched electrical wiring, sending 13,800 volts through his body.

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