Inspection Detail

Inspection: 300692829 - Natural Resources Police, Technical Services Divis

Inspection Information - Office: Department Of Labor, Licensing, And Regulation Division Of Labor And Industry Maryland Occupational Safety And Health

Investigation Summary

A journeyman electrician was responding to a service call relating to a partial outage in the electrical service for a building. He had determined that one of the three phase conductors of the 480-volt main building service was deenergized. He started to troubleshoot the problem by backtracking the site-owned feeder outside the building. He was unsuccessful in trying to enter the pad-mounted step-down transformer at the building entrance, so he backtracked to an unmarked 25-kilovolt pad-mounted sectionalizing transformer. On-site personnel cut the padlocks off the cabinet door under the direction of the electrician. The electrician opened the primary-side rear doors and began working inside the enclosure. Shortly afterward, a witness standing to the side of the transformer with a blocked view of the door heard a noise and saw the electrician stagger back from the cabinet. The electrician's uniform had flash burns on the arms and in the chest area, and the Wiggy 600-volt test meter he was holding was destroyed. He had had the meter in his hand when he started to close the door. The electrician stated that he had not used the meter on any of the 25-kilovolt buses and believed that it might have contacted the door as he closed it. However, physical evidence did not support this statement. One of the buses and the interior of the cabinet and the door showed burns and marks consistent with that of recent electrical contact. In addition, the metal cabinet and doors were grounded. The condition of the test meter case, which had its end blown out and its leads vaporized, suggested that the meter had been used to test the bus and failed. The victim sustained first- and second-degree burns on his right arm and first-degree burns on his face. He was treated at a hospital and released. The employee was not trained in working on electrical services, and he had not received training in electrical safety-related work practices. He had been wearing work boots and unrated gloves, but no other personal protective equipment.

Keywords: ELECTRIC ARC, ELECTRICAL, ELECTRICAL TESTING, TEST EQUIPMENT, ELECTRICAL FAULT, BURN, CLOTHING, E GI V, ELECTRICIAN, ELECTRICAL WORK