by ERIK SHILLING and ADAM NICHOLS
A Con Edison electrician was killed yesterday when an explosion sent flames ripping through the Brooklyn manhole where he was working.
Emergency crews were met by fire belching eight feet into the air, black smoke covering the block - and a co-worker of the victim screaming for his buddy.
"He was shouting his name into the hole over and over again," said a witness. "He got no reply."
George Dillman's charred remains were left in the hole for more than two hours as firefighters and electricians struggled to turn off the electrical current to a dozen feeders - each carrying up to 27,000 volts - that intersected in the cramped space where he'd been working.
Dillman, 26, a splicer from College Point, Queens, had working for the utility for three years.
He was carrying out routine maintenance work yesterday at Sutter and Euclid avenues in East New York, Con Ed officials said.
His co-worker Craig Penney, 28, from Whitestone, Queens, was treated at Brookdale Hospital for minor injuries after being thrown to the ground by the force of the explosion.
The blast, which happened at 12:34 p.m., was caused by a smaller explosion in a transformer, two sources told The Post.
"You could feel a rumbling in the floor, like a mini-earthquake," said Dontray Hammond, who lives near the scene.
"The flames were eight feet high, and the smoke covered the whole block. It was like the World Trade Center."
Dillman is thought to have died long before his remains were removed, officials said.
"He was a young man, one of our top employees," said Sonny Jelovcic, 60, Dillman's supervisor.
Matt Tepe, 40, a friend and neighbor of the victim, said Dillman was proud when he got his Con Ed job.
"He couldn't wait to tell me that he found a good job that he could retire from," Tepe said. "He said, 'I finally made it. I'm doing good.' "
Friends said Dillman was planning to marry.
Additional reporting by John Doyle and Lorena Mongelli
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