Popular Beauty Blogger Dies in Freak Accident
In a paradisiacal getaway turned stunningly tragic, Indonesian beauty blogger Rini Cesillia, 26, was found dead on Tuesday while on vacation in Bali, apparently electrocuted by a malfunctioning shower in her hotel.
The young beauty, who lived in Jakarta, had a huge fanbase — more than 13,500 followers on Instagram and thousands of views on YouTube, where she had recently posted tutorials on flat-iron usage and eye shadow application:
“We suspect Cesillia died from electric shock… . We are waiting for the postmortem examination to ascertain whether the cause of death was electrocution or not,” Bali police inspector Bangkit Dananjaya told the Sun.
Friends reportedly found Cesillia naked on the bathroom floor, still holding the shower hose, with burn marks across her chest.
And although it would be a rare way to die, it’s not unheard of in places around the world where electric water heaters are used, according to news reports and even a study of one similar incident.
“Along with electric power becoming an essential part of industry and social environment, death due to electrical injury emerged as a considerable public health problem. And yet, it is still an uncommon cause of death,” noted the 2015 analysis, which was published in the Romanian Journal of Legal Medicine and focused on the shower electrocution death of a 34-year-old woman in China.
The cause in that case appeared to be “using electric equipment in high humidity environment,” which was the steamy bathroom itself, which raises the risk level. “Because of that a grounding wire is prerequisite. During bathing, large amounts of water vapor made the jacketing of the water heater electrically charged. In addition, the naked metal plumbing and shower head which the victim directly contacted served as excellent media for the conduction of electricity from the water heater.” Death would have certainly been instantaneous, the study notes.
Other similar shower-electrocution deaths — all within the last couple of years — have included that of a 15-year-old boy in Singapore, a woman in Abu Dhabi, a man in the United Arab Emirates, a woman in Malaysia, and a 34-year-old man in Hong Kong who, like Cesillia, was found still clutching the running showerhead.
“Even if the building is new, lack of proper maintenance can cause the electrical wires to be in touch with water or people directly, exposing them to the risk of electric shock,” noted an official in the UAE case. “If the building is old but the water heater is in good condition, shock hazards still exist from exposed wiring and lack of proper maintenance.”
Fans of Cesillia expressed their sorrow on social media, tweeting out messages including, “Been reading your blog since long time ago and it always enlightening me. RIP one of my make up guru. May you safe in heaven,” and “Just found out, [a] beauty blogger in Indonesia has passed away. Time is short! No-one can predict it.”
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