Re: Oh Sh** Moment

[Matt Ion <soundy106@xxxxxxxxx>]

Frank Olson wrote:
> Jim Rojas wrote:
>> I was working on a 440V 1500 Amp fire water pump in NYC 20+ years ago.
>> Building super swore he shut off the power. Luckily I treat it like it
>> was live anyway. My screwdriver slipped out of my hands and melted in
>> half when it hit the power terminals...all I saw was a blue flash...I
>> could not see anything but blue for hours...my fault for trusting
>> someone else like that. I was connecting relays to monitoring pump
>> run, and pump power failure for the gravity tank on the roof. I took
>> the rest of the day off... :)
>>
>> Jim Rojas
>
>
> Having seen (and worked on more than a few fire pump controllers), you
> musta been pokin' around in the wrong part of the cabinet.  In my
> experience the low voltage connections are usually at the bottom and the
> high voltage terminals are protected (and physically separated at the
> top)...  Mind you, the oldest unit I've serviced is around 18 years old.
>  Please verify for yourself that power is indeed turned off before
> working on any high voltage equipment.  I made the same mistake myself a
> number of years ago (only it wasn't a fire pump) and "trusted" a
> nincompoop electrician when he said...  "Don't worry, the power's off".

I got in crap from an oil company bigwig once when working inside a fuel
dispenser (the kind in a gas station) on an under-construction site for
not ensuring the power was off and locked out... didn't seem to matter
to him that what I was working on required power and could only be
configured and tested with the power on.  Duh?

The site super actually found it mildly amusing that said bigwig
subsequently failed them on the "safety inspection" for that...