# arch flash incident



## rockerknight (Feb 2, 2012)

co worker of mine had an arch flash incident last week. he was working on a fire pump panel with straight from service feed with no fuse or breaker. he lost the ground wire he was landing and hit arched out and hit the service side. he was in the hospital for 2 days and left with 2nd degree burns. hasn't returned to work yet but he seems to be doing better. no protection was worn while this happened. our company does have the proper gear for this just was poor planning. anywho just make sure you wear your PPE


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

rockerknight said:


> co worker of mine had an arch flash incident last week. he was working on a fire pump panel with straight from service feed with no fuse or breaker. he lost the ground wire he was landing and hit arched out and hit the service side. he was in the hospital for 2 days and left with 2nd degree burns. hasn't returned to work yet but he seems to be doing better. no protection was worn while this happened. our company does have the proper gear for this just was poor planning. anywho just make sure you wear your PPE


How many guys work for your company and why do they not have the right gear?:blink:


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## Going_Commando (Oct 1, 2011)

Re-read it Harry. The company had the right gear, but the injured worker WASN'T wearing it. 

Rocker, do you know any specifics of the equipment he was working on? Curious about voltage and AIC, if you know it.


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## guest (Feb 21, 2009)

rockerknight said:


> co worker of mine had an arch flash incident last week.* he was working on a fire pump panel with straight from service feed with no fuse or breaker*. he lost the ground wire he was landing and hit arched out and hit the service side. he was in the hospital for 2 days and left with 2nd degree burns. hasn't returned to work yet but he seems to be doing better. *no protection was worn *while this happened. _*our company does have the proper gear for this just was poor planning.*_ anywho just make sure you wear your PPE



While my hopes for a speedy recovery go out to your injured co-worker, I am gonna be the a-hole here and say that there is NO ONE to blame but himself. 

Poor planning is* NOT* an acceptable excuse.
The PPE is available and was not used, plain and simple. 

I sincerely hope your company's insurance adjusters are nice guys, because they can rightfully refuse to pay out on this incident. If your co-worker worked for me this would have gotten him terminated. 

As a business owner, I would much rather have the guy have to spend extra hours to go fetch the proper gear rather than have to deal with this mess. 

A valuable but hard lesson learned.


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## HARRY304E (Sep 15, 2010)

Going_Commando said:


> Re-read it Harry. The company had the right gear, but the injured worker WASN'T wearing it.
> 
> Rocker, do you know any specifics of the equipment he was working on? Curious about voltage and AIC, if you know it.


Thanks I see that now..:thumbsup:


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

there, but for the grace of God, go I


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## ibuzzard (Dec 28, 2008)

Nearly all the contractors I know around here, after sending you condolences, would send you two checks.People who ignore safety to that extent are liabilities,not heroes.


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## BBQ (Nov 16, 2010)

For what it is worth I doubt this task could have been done 'legally' even with PPE.


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## eejack (Jul 14, 2012)

Wishing your coworker a speedy recovery and thanks for the reminder.

Was there any good reason why you did not have a shut down so you could work on this safely?


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

Because he may have had to shut the _entire _service down eejack, so PPE aside, some creedence should be given to supply side connections in 230.82 protecting equipment _before _people....

~CS~


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## nolabama (Oct 3, 2007)

BBQ said:


> For what it is worth I doubt this task could have been done 'legally' even with PPE.


Coordinate with poco and pull the cutouts.


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## Zog (Apr 15, 2009)

BBQ said:


> For what it is worth I doubt this task could have been done 'legally' even with PPE.


I agree, even ignoring the "justification" for working live with no OCPD the tables can't be used anyways for PPE selection.


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## eejack (Jul 14, 2012)

chicken steve said:


> Because he may have had to shut the _entire _service down eejack, so PPE aside, some creedence should be given to supply side connections in 230.82 protecting equipment _before _people....
> 
> ~CS~


Maybe I am missing something, but I thought life safety always came first?

I understand having the fire pumps on an uninterruptible power source but shut down the service while you are working on it. Even if you take all the precautions and no one gets hurt, what is the end result if that feeder melted into itself? I assume a long and unplanned shutdown.

Plan a shutdown, do other things at the same time, nothing goes boom, no one gets hurt.

... and I have to look up that 230.82 in case you said the same thing I just said ...


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

your not missing anything , except _my_ stance eejack

the code allows fire pumps to tap on w/solo disconnect status , assumably in the incidence of disaster where the sprinkler system would continue on after the (larger) mains are closed down

keep in mind some of these systems operate on motors that can be run in 1/2 conduit, and those disco's may not have ocpd 

so the hazard is muti-fold here

who reasons a 1/2 run of emt can carry an unprotected _aic_ enough to run a shopping mall?

certainly not a FF, i'd wager not most demolition crews, and sadly not the majority of us here


~CS~


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## annikascott (Oct 12, 2012)

Well, if the company has protective gears, why he hasn't worn that? He should keep in mind that there are work hazards present so be careful and wear appropriate attire to prevent such accidents to occur.


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## Big John (May 23, 2010)

annikascott said:


> ...He should keep in mind that there are work hazards present so be careful and wear appropriate attire to prevent such accidents to occur.


 PPE reduces the problem, but it doesn't solve it. 

Yes, he may have avoided a hospital stay, but he would have still had an accident that exposed him to potential injury and damaged the customer's property. 

-John


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