Inspection Detail

Inspection: 126133412 - Southern California Edison

Inspection Information - Office: Monrovia District Office

Investigation Summary

Three power line workers were working on a utility pole. One of them was a supervisory power line worker with about 10 years of experience. The second employee had just advanced to fifth-step apprentice and had recently begun working on energized equipment. These two employees had climbed the pole and were tied into their working positions on opposite sides of the pole. The third power line worker was on the ground. The two employees on the pole had never worked together before. The apprentice had placed a wooden working arm below transformers that were mounted on the pole. The employees had pulled the fuses to the three 16-kilovolt/480-volt transformers. However, the tops of the fuse holders were still energized. The apprentice tied the upper part of a ground wire to the working arm. The ground wire was connected to a ground rod that had been driven into the ground about a meter. The supervisor connected the ground wire to the hot stick, and the apprentice took the hot stick and connected the end of the ground wire to the bottom of the first fuse holder. Using the hot stick, the apprentice was connecting a jumper from the bottom of the first fuse holder to the bottom of the second when he brought the jumper too close to the energized part of the 16-kilovolt fuse holder. This caused an electrical fault, and the ensuing electric arc burned the supervisor. He sustained third-degree burns to the center of his chest and on his right thigh. The chest wound was about 150 millimeters in diameter, and the thigh wound was 254 millimeters in diameter. He was hospitalized in a burn center for several days.

Keywords: BURN, CLOTHING, ELECTRIC ARC, OVERHEAD POWER LINE, PROTECTIVE GROUNDING, ELECTRICAL, POWER LINE WORKER, E PTD, ELEC UTILITY WORK, ELECTRICAL FAULT