Inspection Detail

Inspection: 312435753 - Southern California Edison

Inspection Information - Office: Van Nuys District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 10:18 p.m. on February 27, 2010, Employee #1 and a coworker, were responding to a "lights out" call in a work area. They isolated the possible cause of the lights outs to a 9.5kV BURD Switch, located in an underground vault near Thousand Oaks. Employee #1 went down to the switch and evaluated the system with a testing indicator, followed by the coworker who verified Employee #1's findings. Employee #1 and the coworker closed the switch remotely. Employee #1 went back down to the vault, and used a "hotstick" to remove the fuses on the switch. Employee #1 passed the fuses to the coworker, who was outside of vault, where the fuses were replaced. The coworker passed the new fuse back to Employee #1. As Employee #1 proceeded to place the fuse on the switch, there was an arc flash, resulting in second and third degree burns to E1's face and wrists. Employee #1 was taken to Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks and then transported to Grossman Burn Center in Oaks, CA where he was hospitalized for ten days for the treatment of his injuries. At approximately 12:35 a.m. on February 28, 2010, a representative of Southern California Edison, reported an accident occurring at a worksite located in Thousand Oaks, CA. N March 2, 2010, DOSH initiated an onsite investigation of the incident.

Keywords: BURN, FUSE, ELECTRIC ARC, ELECTRICAL VAULT, ELECTRIC SWITCH, ELECTRICAL TESTING, ELECTRICIAN, TEST EQUIPMENT, FACE, WRIST