Don't work live!

[Piratepete]

Hi Guys

Got a call the other day. Electrician in hospital. No power. Please help.

He was working on a 8 way 3 phase board and attempted to insert a single phase MCB without turning off the power first (trying to be helpful). Unfortunately he mispositioned the MCB and managed to short 2 phases with the securing screw. The resulting arc destroyed all the MCBs on that side and all of the busbar MCB tags bar one (11 of them) before blowing a 200 Amp supply fuse. The electrician suffered severe burns to his arms. His eyes were saved by his glasses.
Lesson learnt, I hope!

Pete

 

[Marvo]

Yaeh, working live is about identifying the risks and closely managing them. He obviously made some poor decisions, had insufficient visibility and his protective equipment was lacking. I'm just glad it was only burns to his arms and probably arc-eye, he could have been dead.

 

[Darkwood]

It comes more down to understanding the risks of the task in hand, I could guess at a few older ranges of mcb's that allow this short to occur if they are misaligned, most modern boards do allow for live fitting with safety through design, I wouldn't give the blanket approach of do not work live, I would rather suggest the Electrician should know the job in hand and the risks that come with it.

 

[Flanders]

Yes thats why i like the merin dbs you can turn off the individual circuits if mcbs are not fitted , i hered a story when someone was trying to get an mcb be out of a live 3 phase board using a flat blade screw driver and shorted out across 2 phases , wrote the board off and he burnt his hand and face.

 

[ipf]

Hope the power loss didn't affect his treatment.....silly boogger.

 

[Pete999]

There for the grace of God go's lots of Sparkies trying to be clever.

 

[Darkwood]

The Darwin effect is stong in this trade :devilish:

 

[ian.settle1]

Oh dear his next problem will be a visit from the HSE followed by a visit to court

 

[Pete999]

Oh dear his next problem will be a visit from the HSE followed by a visit to court

Bin there done that many eons ago

 

[LankyWill]

Bin there done that many eons ago

what happened pete?

 

[7029 dave]

Silly really, one hard lesson to be learnt, it just is not worth it. Hope the guy recovers well.

 

[Pete999]

what happened pete?

Long story, do you really want me to tell?

 

[LankyWill]

Long story, do you really want me to tell?

go on! i am sure an upstanding electrician like yourself couldnt have done anything that bad?

 

[Pete999]

go on! i am sure an upstanding electrician like yourself couldnt have done anything that bad?

Are you sitting comfortably? Firstly it wasn't me that got injured, more to the point it was my stupid error of judgement that got some other bloke injured.
I was AP Authorised Person for an Army camp. Two sets of contractors working on the LV ring feeding some Married Quarters.
First rule of being an AP NEVER issue 2 permits to work on the same system, at least it was when the accident occured. issued one permit for contractor No1 OK, got pressure from above to get the job done, contractor No 2 wsa rewiring the LV feeds to the houses, issued a 2nd permit, thought I had isolated, I hadn't, Sparkie in the trench, used to have a hacksaw, he didn't when he cut into the UG cable
Crikey was he lucky no lasting damage, -------ings all over the shop HSE involved, the only saving grace for me was that there were far to many mistakes made by everyone, there was no prosecutions, but I learnt one valuable lesson that day, never take anything for granted, double check everything, NEVER take peoples word that it's dead. Here endeth the lesson.

 

[Nolnoc]

Hope he's ok. As Pete says but for the grace of god. I regularly have to work live. I mainly work in banks now and my company can get fined for interuption to power. It's always in the back of your mind is today the day I make a mistake. We're only human after all..

 

[hasel5]

They need to think again then about working for this banks

Hope he's ok. As Pete says but for the grace of god. I regularly have to work live. I mainly work in banks now and my company can get fined for interuption to power. It's always in the back of your mind is today the day I make a mistake. We're only human after all..

 

[Nolnoc]

They need to think again then about working for this banks

Couldn't agree more. But it's a 5 million per year contract.

 

[hasel5]

is a life worth 5 mill

 

[Marvo]

I think the theory would be they charge an appropriate price so they can employ suitably qualified and experienced guys and provide them with the training and equipment necessary for live working should it be necessary.

 

[Nolnoc]

is a life worth 5 mill

No its not. But these big companies don't think like that. The real world is somewhat different than the ideal one. Some times you bite your lips and get on with it.