Just goes to show, the 50 for the repairman is worth it. I play with Low Will so I direct nearly all of my sims' actions. If I tell them to repair something, I always save game first. At least a couple years ago, I lost the dad in one of my families to electrocution when he was changing a broken lightbulb on a lamp. He didn't get singed first. He just tried to repair and ZAP, dead and Grim came to call.
Changing a lightbulb? I've never seen that in Sims 3.