KANE'OHE — A man picking avocados with a pole died yesterday, apparently electrocuted when the pole touched an electrical transmission line overhead near Windward Community College, officials said.

Emergency responders could not get to the man right away because the wet ground was electrified. Hawaiian Electric Co. shut off power temporarily.

A man who was with the victim identified him as George DeCosta.

The incident happened eight days after a Maui man was electrocuted while picking mangoes at the family home in Lahaina. Jack H. Kahahane, 59, was using an aluminum mango picker that touched an overhead high-voltage wire that was next to the tree, police said.

In yesterday's accident, which happened about 10:50 a.m., George Ferreira, 50, said his friend DeCosta regularly picked avocados in the area next to the medicinal garden at Windward Community College.

Ferreira said he and DeCosta had been picking avocados when the accident occurred.

"The ground was electrified 5 feet around my friend," Ferreira said. "I couldn't get near him."

WCC Chancellor Doug Dykstra said a staff member from the Hawaiian Studies program ran into the area, which is owned by the college, hoping to be of some help.

"But the man was grievously injured and there were signs of the electrical juice and the wet mud and puddles were such that he couldn't go near him safely," said Dykstra, who was in his third day as the college's new chancellor.

The jungle-like area is fenced off, but 10 to 15 people live there in tents, Dykstra said. He said he plans to post signs against trespassing and to periodically have the area checked.

"It's back in an area of the campus that's not really on a regular security route," Dykstra said. "There's really no way in other than tromping through rainforest."

Fire Capt. Terry Seelig said the pole was touching an overhead wire and resting on the ground.

"Where it was touching the ground there was a red glow," he said, attributing that to the energy flowing through the pole. Later when the power was off, water was used to douse a smoldering fire, Seelig said.

Haunani Niau, who works for the city Department of Parks and Recreation, said she saw smoke rising from the area and worried for the people who live there, many of whom she knows by sight.

"I just saw them yesterday," Niau said. "They asked me to pray for them 'cause they was going to look for an apartment together."

Darren Pai, spokesman for HECO, said crews went to the accident site to turn off the power. The power line is made up of three cables and one of the cables was de-energized when it contacted the pole, but the two other cables were working, Pai said.

"In order for anyone to safely operate in the area, we had to de-energize those other two lines," he said.

Some 450 customers were without electricity until about 11:45 a.m. yesterday.

Pai said people need to be careful when picking fruit or working around electric wires. Metal ladders, poles and tools should be kept away from electrical wires, he said.

"Even if it's made out of a non-conducting material like wood, you want to keep it at least 10 feet away from a power line," Pai said.