some times safe isn't enough

[jcurrie]

just got off the phone , one of my old frends who works at a power plant is in ICU with burns , another friend is the safety man there , what happend was a 7200v control was malfuctioning they took back off panel while circuit was dead, then they made it live and stood back about 10 ft or so and had the opperator fire unit up , then things went nucular and the panel blew up , the good thing was he had his safety glasses on saved his eyes,they did all things acording to procedure but still got hurt, so sometimes safe isn't enough to stop a accident. high voltage is dangerous.
jc

 

[shrtrnd]

You NEVER stand in front of the cabinet when you fire it up.
I've seen 3, 4160VAC switchgear explosions. and more 480VAC malfunctions than I can count.
Best 'don't do it' thing I've seen was a jouneyman (woman) electrician apprentice who knew
it all, and wouldn't listen to the mentor guys who were training her.
Drilled into a motor control cabinet with the power on. Her Makita drill went through
the cabinet and into the 480VAC Buss Bar. Melted the drill bit, blew her across the
room. The drill worked just fine. She quit the next day.

 

[jcurrie]

don't know where he was standing Hap just said app10ft away also don't know what the prob was its a motor controler for the feedwater pumps, never seen a 4150 blow up but seen a 12.5kv one and WOW what a fireball.
jc

 

[(*steve*)]

I guess that thanks to the safety glasses, it won't be the last thing he'll ever see.

I hope he recovers well. I've visited people in a specialist burns ward at our major hospital here (it gets people flown in from interstate and occasionally internationally for treatment). It is one of the most horrifying places I have ever been (and I only saw patients who were well on the way to recovery and an person who had obviously been very badly burned some time ago who was gowning up at the same time as me...).

Burns are high on my list of injuries to avoid.

Pass on my best wishes.

 

[shrtrnd]

We all sympathize about the injury. Don't mean to minimize it.
All I can say I've learned over the years, is that electricity doesn't care how experienced
you are, how smart you are, or what kind of precautions you've taken. You can't predict
what will happen when things go wrong with certainty.
Friends I've known have been killed doing the same thing they've done hundreds of
times before, they just got complacent or weren't paying attention, just that one time.
Electricity doesn't care, and it doesn't forgive. You just have to do your best to protect
yourself in case that one little thing goes wrong.

 

[jcurrie]

thanks Steve he is much better , the only reason he was in ICU was his age(kicking 70 hard) most of the burns were to face and neck.
shrtnd what i ment was some times things happen no matter how safe you are , worked in a ug coal mine for a while had a man killed by a roof fall that was in a supported area that was just checked by fireboss less than 5 hrs befor he was just there at the wrong time , another man 15 ft away wasn't hit.the cause was a bounce(movment of the ground).

jc

 

[shrtrnd]

jc, I see your point.
My point was, you don't stand 10 feet away from power-up of 7200V switchgear.
If it goes bad, you're going to catch the result.