stand by with a non-conductive stick
Big Jim got me working on an electric project this week.
“We’re going to replace this surface panel but we’re doing it live,” he tells me.
“What’s that mean?” I ask.
“It means I’ll have 240 volts going through me if I touch the wrong wire. That’s why you need a long two by four. That much juice will seize my muscles so I can’t let go of the wire. You need to hit me with that board to knock me loose.”
And Big Jim was serious, so I stood beside him with the two by four raised.
where’s the picture of that?
Comment by girl with the glass eye — January 16, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
240 ain’t that bad, you would have only had to whack him lightly. its when you get into 3 phase and higher.
Comment by al — January 16, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
That’s all the instruction you got? If he got electrocuted, where would you have hit him?
Comment by Lyle_s — January 17, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
knock his hand loose from the wire.
Comment by Rolston — January 18, 2008 @ 8:40 am
Oh yeah. Good thing it was you and not me…
Comment by Lyle_s — January 19, 2008 @ 11:00 am
your life continues to amaze me, rolston.
Comment by molly — January 21, 2008 @ 1:02 pm
Electricity is no joke. A guy I used to work with has a scar from ear to ear under his chin from an incident very similar to this scenario where he got electrocuted. 20 years later that scar is prominent. Scary stuff…
Comment by Lyle_s — January 21, 2008 @ 6:39 pm
I’ll have to get Big Jim to tell me the story again about getting pinned to the ground by electricty while he was laying on the ground in a crawl space under a house.
Basically, the current was traveling through his arm and coming out his shoulder. As soon as he realized he wasn’t dead, he figured out he could pry himself off the wire by kicking his feet against a joist.
Comment by Rolston — January 21, 2008 @ 6:58 pm