Borrowing from Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame), I often use the phrase “safety third.” In Mike Rowe’s way of thinking, your personal safety is not found in safety programs or safety gear. Your personal safety is ultimately on you.
Safety third.
I think we can claim with some
surety that most adults are aware of the hazards associated with electricity. Shock hazards are the most obvious. In addition to shock hazards, faulted
circuits (short circuits and ground faults) can create arc-flash events: explosions
in unadorned English. Sometimes,
breakers will spit fire or blow apart when subjected to the high current values
created by faults. This is why you will
notice electricians standing off to one side of a panel when they switch breakers
to the “on” position to energize a circuit.
Recently, while assessing a
building’s electrical system with an electrical contractor, we opened the cover
on an electrical breaker panel and found a circuit breaker with red tape applied
across its handle. The breaker was in
the off position and someone had scrawled “direct short” across the length of
tape.
This one qualifies as “safety fourth”
in my estimation.
In a safety third world, the faulted circuit conductor would be permanently disconnected from the breaker and tagged internally within the panel. Or a more ambitious craftsman might try to locate and repair the faulted portion of the circuit.
Safety Fourth
—Mitchell Hegman
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