10 Oct
2007
10 Oct
'07
12:33 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
I was chatting with one of our electrical co-op's
linemen. He
mentioned that when dealing with outages, that disconnected lines
sometimes aren't. Apparently some workers have been surprised when
some enterprising homeowner decided to fire up his portable generator
without pulling the main disconnect.
People are idiots. (c)2007
Seriously, it doesn't matter what sort of warning or obstacle you
provide, if your work gets in the way of their plans, they'll go around it.
I was once working on a '40s-era bridge hoist that had its main
wiring panel on the bridge. I had thrown the 480V main breaker, taped
it down with red 100mph tape, and tied the outer latch of the breaker
box down with a red flag*. I had my hands in the wiring panel (and my
butt on the outer beam of the bridge, 25 feet off the floor), when the
bridge took off moving!
One of the welders had untied the red flag from the breaker box,
removed the tape from the switch, turned on the breaker, and was running
the hoist down to his table to move a finished beam. Apparently** it
never occurred to him that there might be a reason for all that rigamarole.
* The hoist wasn't the only equipment powered from that breaker panel,
and the other stuff was live, so I couldn't lock the box.
** I'm not sure, as I never got a chance to ask him. I was told later
that he complained to the shop foreman because I was throwing wrenches
and curses at him, and when he explained the situation, the foreman
advised him to make himself gone before I got down on the floor.
Doc