Electrical Burn Incident

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Electrical Burn Incident 24-Nov-2003
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600 Volt Breaker Panel
Cable being removed
This panel is mounted on an old Joy transformer
skid. Note that the panel was installed upside
down. The ground terminations are on the right
hand side of this picture
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Point of Contact
Ground wires contacted line side breaker terminal
2 bare ground wires plus pilot wire
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Incident
Electrician was attempting to remove the cable
from the breaker panel. He had disconnected the
3 phase leads from the load side of the breaker
and had requested assistance from a mechanic to
pull the cable out of the panel, while the
electrician guided the cable ends. He apparently
lost control of the bundle of ground wires, which
flipped around and came into contact with the
line side terminal on the breaker. He suffered
severe burns to his hands, arms and to his chest
and abdomen. Contributing factors identified so
far 1) Removing cabling without shutting off
power completely to panel 2) Panel is upside
down - ground leads would have been below
breakers instead of above them - line side
terminals would have been near the top of the
panel, instead of in the middle 3) Inadequate
PPE for electrical hot work
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Consequences
This is all that is left of his shirt. He had to
tear the burning shirt off of himself after the
arc had burned his hands
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Consequences
Look closely - this is the remains of a notebook
that is still in his shirt pocket - you can see
that the pocket was burned off the shirt.
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Consequences
These are the safety glasses he was wearing.
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Consequences
The victim is 64 years old with 37 years service.
On Friday of this week, he and his wife were to
have left on a 12 week vacation. She spent part
of yesterday trying to cancel airfare and
accomodations that had been booked, and is not
sure how much of their cancelled trip costs will
be refunded.
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Learning Opportunities
For Electricians Given this incident, are
there any circumstances left under which you will
do cabling in an energized panel? Will you allow
a partner to do so?
For Supervisors, Planners, Superintendents and
Managers Given this incident, are you aware of
substandard (e.g., upside down) installations in
your area? Will you be assigning electricians to
work on energized electrical systems? Do they
have and use the proper gear and equipment to do
so safely?