by JONATHAN LEMIRE, MIKE JACCARINO and TRACY CONNOR
A Con Edison worker looking forward to marriage next year died Thursday in a fiery manhole blast that trapped him in an underground death chamber, authorities said.
George Dillman, 26, was splicing high-voltage cables 10 feet beneath the street in Brooklyn when the explosion shook the earth around him.
His partner on the pavement above, Craig Penney, 28, tried desperately to get to the electrician, but it was no use.
"The guy down there - he didn't have a chance," said one witness, a retired cop. "He would have needed God to pull him out."
The cause of the tragedy was under investigation.
Fire officials said there are a dozen cables running through a compartment under Sutter and Euclid Aves. in East New York - some carrying 27,000 volts.
Con Ed officials said Dillman and Penney were carrying out routine maintenance when something went wrong about 12:35 p.m.
Witnesses first saw smoke billowing from the manhole, followed by fire and a muffled bang.
"I felt the vibration in the ground and in my heart," said neighborhood resident Larry Penn, 46. "It sounded like a bomb."
Penney tried to lower a ladder into the hole so his co-worker could escape, witnesses said.
"There was a lot of fire coming from the hole," said Pete Medina, 47.
"The guy [Penney] was crying, 'My friend's down there.' He was trying to get into the hole."
Firefighters, who arrived within minutes, cut the power and used a hook to pull Dillman out by his harness, officials said. He was already dead. Penney suffered minor injuries.
Dillman, of College Point, Queens, graduated from St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows in 2000 and took a job with Con Ed three years ago.
He proposed to his sweetheart in June, and they planned to wed next October.
Michael Gonzalo, 22, who said Dillman was a groomsman at his wedding, recalled his pal as the person everyone could count on.
"He always had a smile on his face," Gonzalo said. "The world has one less amazing person because he died. If you'd call him from a different state and tell him you are in trouble, he would drop everything and drive two hours."
"You could not find a better guy," said Luciano Evangelisti, who knows Dillman and his fiance. "She's devastated. I'm surprised she is still standing."
Co-worker Mark Figueroa, 44, said Dillman was a "good kid."
"He was an electrician by trade because his father was an electrician. I'm gonna miss him. Just let the public know - it's no joke down there."
Friends and neighbors said Dillman had two sisters and a brother.
When he got his job with Con Ed, Dillman "could not wait to tell everyone in the block," said his friend Matt Teepe, 40. "'I finally made it,' he told me."
Con Ed's union dispatched safety officials to investigate.
"We want to see if there was any negligence involved on the part of the company," said Joe Flaherty, spokesman for the Utility Workers of America Local 1-2.
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