His next memory is waking up in Wairarapa Hospital with his mum at the bedside.
"I had come to work on the menu lights and went to work on the hotpoint out the back. That's when it all happened," Mr Pearse said.
"From what I've been told I was medically dead for 10 minutes. Mum told me all about it after I woke up in hospital. I didn't believe her."
He has been told he survived because of the actions of several people, including cafe co-owner Aaron Leftbridge, who immediately turned off the mains power, and a cafe diner with emergency training who gave Mr Pearse CPR until paramedics used a defibrillator to revive him.
Mrs Pearse and her husband were out of the region when they were told of the incident.
"We rushed back to the hospital and I saw them taking him out of the ambulance. He looked bad. We were taken aside and I thought 'that's it, we've lost Michael'," she said.
"I really thought he was gone but someone was sitting on his shoulder that day."
Taylor's Electrical owner Geoff Taylor said a workplace investigation had cleared Mr Pearse of any wrongdoing and there was no prosecution regarding the incident.
"There were no charges and they found Michael to be competent. They found he had followed all the health and safety rules that morning," Mr Taylor said.
"He served his apprenticeship with me and he's been with me for going on seven years now. He's a good quality tradesman and he's very safety conscious. That's what really got me."
Mr Pearse said he now realised the danger of his work.
As another way of observing the anniversary of his survival, he has vowed to never again work on January 9.
