Owner of Gateco Electric, Erik Gates, Falls through the Skylight

Erik Gates, Owner of an electrical company Gateco Electric fell through the skylight and dies from chest injuries. Erik Gates, 47 was walking across the roof before the accident occurred in the Xirrus Inc. building at 2101 Corporate Center Drive in Newbury Park.

Gates was at the moment engaged in contract work for Xirrus Inc when the accident took place. Dirk Gates, brother of Erik Gates, is the president and chief executive officer of Xirrus.

More details about the accident below from http://www.vcstar.com/news.

“He was a good guy,” Steve DeGennaro, Xirrus Inc.’s co-founder and chief financial officer, said Monday. “He survived cancer, he jumps with parachutes, he base jumps. He’s an active guy who was used to taking precautions. This was a freak accident that shouldn’t have happened.”

Gates fell about 30 feet, said a spokesman for California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, commonly known as Cal/OSHA.

The coroner’s investigation and examination of the body showed it was an accident, Gainer said. However, officials are not sure how Gates fell because the co-worker who was there with him had his back turned to him at the time of the fall.

Erik Gates was a father of three, active in rocketry and a skydiver, who maintained the Web site, Gates Brothers Rocketry with his brother.