Kris’s Story
Kris was a young worker. He was an electrical apprentice in British Columbia, Canada. He had only been on the job for a short time. He was asked to dust a transformer which he had previously dusted successfully, without incident. But this time was different. Please take two minutes to watch his story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4lGQ1RkY9s.
Kris was lucky. He survived an arc flash. He spent two years undergoing five surgeries for his injuries, but he survived. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2019, 166 people did not survive electrical-related incidents.
What is an arc flash? According to OSHA, an arc flash is a release of gas with temperatures sometimes exceeding 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit (F). (https://www.osha.gov/electrical/flash-hazards) The temperature of the sun’s surface is around 10,000 degrees F.
Arc flash only happens with equipment at high voltage, right? Not really. Voltage as low as 120 can create enough energy to cause an arc flash.
What do we need to do to be safer around electricity? Get to know the electrical procedures for your workplace. Know what the lock-out/tag-out (LOTO) procedures are. LOTO is the step-by-step procedure to de-energize any energized machine or equipment. It requires knowing where all the avenues or inlets for energy come into it. LOTO often requires more than just unplugging a machine or piece of equipment. Besides electricity, there can be mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic, thermal, kinetic, radiation, or chemically produced energy. Before working on the machine or equipment, unless you are specially trained and are wearing fire resistive-rated PPE to work on live equipment, all energy must be controlled, i.e., de-energized and disconnected.
And just disconnecting the energy is not enough. Energy in the machine or equipment can be residual. Energy could be stored inside the unit. That’s why it is important to do more than the initial lock-out. Bleeding out the residual energy is also a critical step.
In his story, Kris told us that the transformer he was dusting was “live.” There is a chance it was not locked out, and that residual energy had not been bled out before he touched it. While this safety tip is a very simplified overview of electrical safety, we can learn from Kris’s story. There are a few points we need to remember.
1. Until you have verified that a full LOTO procedure has been performed on any energized machine or equipment, consider it to be “live” and energized. Don’t touch it.
2. If you don’t need to be in the area where energized machines or equipment are working, stay at least 10 feet away. 10 feet is an “approach boundary.”
3. If you see a tag on a machine or equipment, look at it. Someone might be working on it, and for their safety and your own, pay attention to the tag.
Weekly Safety Challenge:
Do you work on equipment or machines at work? How are they deenergized? What are the LOTO procedures. What about at home? Do you take time to do a LOTO procedure for working on energized equipment or electrical systems at home?
