Shop owner Christine Rowley was electrocuted by a drilling machine rescued after the Christchurch earthquake.

Rubble in Christchurch's CBD after the 2011 earthquake. Photography/Mark Mitchell

A homemade engraving machine recovered from a dumpster after the Christchurch earthquake has been found to have caused the death of a woman on the West Coast.

Coroner Rachel Schmidt-McCleave has released her findings into Christine Rowley's death, saying her death by electrocution underscores the risks associated with fractal burns.

The 66-year-old woman was discovered by a delivery driver dead on the floor of her shop in Inangahua Junction in 2020.

Recently released fatality findings show how a driver was carrying boxes into the store on December 3 and saw a customer waiting at the counter.

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When Rollie, the store's sole operator, did not appear, the driver went to the back of the store to find her lying on the floor.

Rollie's sister, Marlene Korsum, arrived shortly after and when she touched her sister's arm she was given an electric shock. The delivery driver then followed the extension cord to the box and turned off the power.

Emergency services arrived shortly after determining Rollie had died from accidental high-voltage electrocution.

Rollie ran a general store in Inangahua Junction, where she also sold her arts and crafts, made clothing, and made repairs with sewing machines.

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Her son, Philip Lee Rowley, a self-employed electrician in Christchurch, had given her a homemade engraving device he found in a bin after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

He showed her how to use it to burn wood but he didn't know that she had taken it to Inangahua and was using it to make art. Rowley was using the device in a technique called fractional cremation.

Lee admitted the device had no safety measures other than a circuit breaker, and said he would have taken it from her if he knew she still had it, according to coroner Schmidt-McCleave.

Fractional burning, or Lichtenberg burning, uses high-voltage electricity to create complex branch-like patterns on wood by passing current through an electrically conductive solution applied to the surface.

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Despite its stunning visual results, this technique is extremely dangerous and poses a significant risk of electrocution and serious injury, which has led safety experts to discourage its use by amateurs.

Coroner Schmidt-McCleave said that it appeared that Rowley, in performing the partial burning, had come into contact with those live conductive parts exposed on the electrical apparatus, or the resulting current flowing on the wood, during the burning process.

“The use of these devices and the fractional cremation technique is extremely dangerous because they usually contain wires and components that are directly accessible, making them unsafe for any use or handling,” Schmidt-McCliff said.

“Fractal burn has been associated worldwide with devastating high-voltage electrical injury and death.

“I urge the New Zealand public not to attempt this dangerous activity, and stress that there is no way to make a fractal burner safe without a specially designed enclosed device.”

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