Inspection Detail

Inspection: 311247688 - Greenlee Textron, Inc.

Inspection Information - Office: Naperville Area Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 10:50 a.m. on January 2, 2008, Employee #1, a maintenance electrician, was working from an elevated scissor lift performing maintenance work inside a 480v bus box (G.E. Flexiplug Plug-In Device, Catalog Number AC362RG, 60 Amp, 600 volt, Phase 3). He was preparing to install a lathe machine on the shop floor below. The employee turned the switch to the "off" position and opened the door to the box. He relied on his visual observation of the contacts position inside the box and the interlocked door on the box to verify that the box was "dead." He did not lock out the box or verify a deenergized state. He started to move a wire using a uninsulated screw driver. The screw driver contacted the bottom contact of one of the fuse holders inside the box and an arc flash occurred. Employee #1 sustained second and third degree burns to his face, neck and arm, and was hospitalized. The employee was wearing safety glasses, a hard hat and steel-toed shoes, but was not wearing electrical protective equipment such as die-electric gloves, a die-electric hard hat, face shield, or FR clothing. The employer did not have an established safe work procedures for work performed on the bus boxes.

Keywords: BURN, ELEC PROTECT EQUIP, ELECTRIC ARC, INSTALLING, PPE, LOCKOUT, FLASHBACK, NECK, FACE, HAND