Yep he is a goner. This guy tried his hand at stealing copper at a utility sub-station in Lakeland Florida if I remember correctly. The newspaper article I'll try and post if I can dig it up. I believe this guys buddy was qouted as saying an electrician working at a nearby jobsite told them they could cut an electric wire with cutters and it wouldn't hurt them as long as they were not grounded. After cutting thru the fence this guy chose one that was 43,000 volts while standing on a utility grounding conductor strung from a pylon. This is another case of getting confused about grounding, grounded and ground....
I wonder if the cutters were salvageable?
JBfan...yeah they were talking about it a while back on our sister site.
Normally I wouldn't trust anything on the internet but there was a newspaper piece about this guy. Only thing that worries me is utility doesn't use that much copper but it appears this story was accurate. I wouldn't be surprised if the truth were known he didn't realize he was really trying to steal aluminum wire....:confused1:
I was just at an arc flash class and this picture came up ( with others from the scene). He was using a set of lineman's pliers to cut through high voltage cable. The arm was vaporized at the elbow, but the lower forearm is nearby. They did find the kliens nearby and his left hand has a wicked burn.
The class was actually pretty interesting. Our company is really nice in the safety dept. We have calorie suits, flash shields, blankets, insulated tool sets, the works. But the number one rule: turn it off. We make all owners sign a hot work permit before we'll do anything hot. Makes them spell out exactly why they NEED it done without shutting it down. It really slows them down a bit. Their two bit reason doesn't sound all that compelling when you have to write: "Afraid of the dark"
Too bad they don't have this hanging up at Home Improvement stores...
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