Inspection Detail

Inspection: 305770059 - Day Electrical Contracting Corp

Inspection Information - Office: Tarrytown Area Office

Investigation Summary

On April 14, 2003, Employee #1, an electrician, was running speaker wire at a school when the school custodian asked him to hook up a temporary electric panel. Employee #1 was installing a 50- or 60-amp circuit breaker in a live, 240-volt, overcurrent circuit panel when an explosion occurred. Employee #1 suffered burns to his upper body, for which he was hospitalized for several days. The live parts were not guarded by insulation. Employee #1 later stated that the panel could not be locked out because there was work going on that required it to be energized. Employee #1 did not have insulated mats, insulated gloves, or a faceshield with him because he did not expect he would need them that day. The equipment was available in his shop, but he later stated that he felt pressured by the school to get the job done, and for that reason did not go and retrieve the PPE. Employee #1 also stated that he may have dropped a screw and that it might have shorted across two phases, causing the explosion. It was normal company practice for the electrician to perform assignments given by certain school coworkers. The owner of the company later stated that he knew his employees sometimes had to work on equipment while it was live, but that he had trained them how to do so safely and had protective equipment available for their use. Upon inspection, the company's safety gloves were last tested in 1981, and the safety mat had some black substance on it; there was no record of when the mat was last tested.

Keywords: BURN, CHEST, ELEC PROTECT EQUIP, INSTALLING, WORK RULES, ELECTRICIAN, CONSTRUCTION, CIRCUIT BREAKER, ELEC CIRC PART--MISC, ELECTRICAL FAULT