The mother of a New York City woman who was electrocuted by a downed power line during Superstorm Sandy filed a wrongful death lawsuit Wednesday against Con Edison, alleging the utility failed to shut down the electricity before the storm hit.
Lauren Abraham, 23, "burned alive, writhing and screaming" for 30 minutes while her neighbors and friends watched helplessly, unable to touch her because the wire was still live, the complaint says. Abraham, a makeup artist, was killed Oct. 29 when she walked outside of her Queens home to take photographs. "The flames grew so large that one neighbor did not even realize that a person was being burned," the family’s lawyers, Douglas Wigdor and Derek Sells, wrote in the complaint. They represent Abraham’s mother, Kim Tinnin, and father, Allan Abraham. The complaint accuses the power utility of negligence and seeks unspecified damages.