23-Year-Old Cleaner Electrocuted to Death While Working at Perdue Farms Facility

Antonio Ramirez, 23, died while on the job at a Perdue Farms facility.
Antonio Ramirez, 21, died while on the job at a Perdue Farms facility.(Facebook)

The supervisor who found Antonio Ramirez's body originally thought he was bent over looking at something.

A 23-year-old cleaner was fatally electrocuted at a Purdue Farms facility in Georgia, a company spokesperson said. Anthony Ramirez had been working for the company as a contractor when he was killed on the job.

A supervisor came across his slumped-over body Sunday morning, and originally thought Ramirez had been bending over to look at something, Assistant Houston County Coroner David Gabbard said in a statement.

The supervisor realized Ramirez appeared to have been electrocuted when he got closer to his body, and felt a shock. The supervisor then turned the power off, called 911, and began administering CPR, the Macon Telegraph reported.

Ramirez was pronounced dead at the hospital at 6:30 a.m.

Ramirez, who was a contracted cleaner from QSI, had been cleaning an area in the facility known as “the hot room” when the incident occurred, Gabbard said. However, spokesperson Andrea Staub of Perdue Farms told Inside Edition Digital that “there is nothing in our facility that is called a hot room” and called it “misinformation.”

“We are deeply saddened by the death of a contractor working for a company that cleans our production equipment who was fatally injured in an accident Sunday morning at our Prepared Food facility in Perry, Ga.,” Staub said. “The safety of our workers and facilities is always Perdue’s top priority, and we are taking the matter very seriously. We are in communication with local authorities and the contracting company, and our deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and co-workers.”

An autopsy is now underway into Ramirez’s cause of death, Gabbard said.

"We are greatly saddened to report the death of a member of our QSI work family at our client’s facility in Perry, Georgia," QSI told Inside Edition Digital. "At this time, our thoughts and prayers go out to the Antonio Ramirez family.  In addition, our condolences go out to Antonio’s QSI associates.

"Antonio, a valued member of the QSI team, was a sanitation supervisor at our client’s Perry facility ... We are respecting the wishes of the Ramirez family to not disclose additional information at this time," QSI said.

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