Never work on a building power main live
 

Here's a video of a guy working on a building power system - it was live and he crossed phases.

Bad.

<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i10.photobucket.com/flash/player.swf?file=http://vid10.photobucket.com/albums/a104/NORCALSTI/death.flv"></embed>

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a104/NORCALSTI/?action=view&current=death.flv

I assume that he was severely burned or killed.:eek:

cooked like a piece of chicken...

shocking ::D

I didn't see any PPE there. If only people were forced to get training before they did stuff.

Holy cow. That violates so many levels of safety practices it's almost funny. Working on high power stuff without even a supervisor, that's just insane.

Dan

I don't think any PPE would have saved him. Wow...

What's the supervisor do?

It almost looked like fuel in there. What was it? How come the camera didn't immediately stop? Why *was* there a camera running on that?

what was he doing? It looked like he was rotating something inside the box.

Keeping one hand in your pocket won't help in that case...

Supervisor = Don't do that!

Fuel = 3-phase, 347/600v (or more) + human flesh

Camera = low-voltage power supply from a transformer located in a different area. If the camera was professionally installed, it would have a battery back-up, too, allowing it to run even with no power.

Why camera? = Security

I guess I assumed that in a matter of life and death (really) you wouldn't need someone to tell you not to do whatever he was doing.

Some people think they know everything there is to know. Where do you think poor quality work comes from?

When I work on mains, I check everything twice, use blankets, insulated tools and big freakin' insulated gloves. I see more "experienced" guys with their heads in the cabinets, dangling chains around their neck, cig hanging from their mouth, no gloves (still wearing their watch/ring), no blanket, no insulated tools, etc.

Thanks, you Porsche people have driven "PPI" into my head so much lately, I dun fergot it's "PPE"...

It looks like he is racking in a circuit breaker, or tightening a breaker charging spring. I work on stuff like this all the time. At the minumum, he should have been wearing a nomex flash suit and hood. That is required for anything over 400 amps. Seems all had had on was safety glasses.

This is why I call a pro for anything beyond checking circuit breakers of changing a light bulb. Electricity scares the hell out of me... Okay, I'll admit to changing a switch...but I killed all power to the house & used a flashlight...

I doubt that was 460V , looks more like medium voltage to me.... 460 won't spark like that ,, not from the blowouts I've seen

Holds the guy's beer after the guy says, "Ya'll watch this."

Actually it probably would. Our guys wear full flash suits when they rack breakers that large. And that happens every few years in the utility business.