Inspection Detail

Inspection: 126133305 - City Of Glendale,Elec. & Mech Dept.

Inspection Information - Office: Monrovia District Office

Investigation Summary

A power line worker (Employee #1) for a city's underground electric department, who had 8 years of experience, was called to assist in restoring power after an outage. When he arrived at the site, another employee, also a journeyman power line worker, was in an aerial lift at a utility pole, opening a disconnect switch. (A supervising employee was on the ground a short distance away.) When Employee #1 saw that the cutout switch was open, he believed that the 7500-volt circuit, identified as V-1322, was deenergized and began to test the circuits at test points on insulated elbow-type line terminations. When he removed the test cap on one of the damaged elbow terminations, an electrical fault occurred, and the ensuing arc flash burned him. Employee #1 was not wearing insulated gloves or sleeves. Apparently, the elbow, which had failed, came out of its landing and was lying at the top of the landing between the incoming and outgoing connection points. (The employer had not consulted the electrical diagrams to determine where circuit V-1322 received its power. It was determined later that the power was not coming from the disconnect at pole, but from an underground vault located a block away.) Employee #1 received first-degree and deep second-degree burns on his left wrist and forearm; he was hospitalized for 14 days.

Keywords: BURN, ELEC INSULATION, ELECTRIC ARC, ELECTRICAL, POWER LINE WORKER, LOCKOUT, E PTD, ELEC UTILITY WORK, ELECTRICAL FAULT, ELEC EQUIPMENT--MISC