jar546
Forum Coordinator
I take electricity very seriously and lack of proper grounding/bonding can cause electric shock. Almost 2 years ago today I was sitting with my mother in her hospice bed as we awaited the inevitable. I received a phone call to assist the police on a Saturday which was extremely rare since we were only contracted with the City for occasional service that called me. There was a fatal electrocution of a 14 year old boy who was playing hide and seek and decided to hide behind a dryer with wet shorts while his playmates were searching for him. According to the girls, they ran into the laundry room and heard a popping noise. At that time the boy stood up, clutched his chest and said he was going to die. He did. He dropped right there and his life was over. I was asked to collect evidence and help them to determine what, if anything went wrong. Every aspect of the circuit for the dryer and the washer was looked at, photographed and methodically taken apart. What I found out was that someone had changed the location of the dryer from its original location and installed a 4" metal junction box, 2-1'8" deep to extend the NM circuit to a back wall. In the process, they failed to ground the metal junction box although they did continue the ground to the washer but reduced it to a 3 wire. The NM connector for the 10/3 coming from the basement was overtightened and cut through to one of the phases. This made the junction box "hot" but with no ground, it was no more than another conductor without insulation. Until someone touched it and a grounded device or piece of equipment, no one would ever know. Had the quasi electrician ever grounded the box as required, it would have tripped the breaker but he did not. So there it sat for months while in use, one phase always making the junction box hot just waiting for the wrong moment when someone makes the connection. As he hid behind the dryer his wet shorts and his body eventually leaned against the junction box as he touched the back of the dryer leading to his death.
So, if it can happen, it can happen and did. A lack of 1 simple ground screw and there is a set of parents grieving the loss of their 14 year old son. Lack of continuity in the grounding and bonding of the circuit.
The code says the metal water pipe system is to be bonded therefore the system shall be bonded and I don't care how literal one wants to get with the codes, intent is simply intent which is safety, the entire existence of the codes. For safety. I am not going to compromise safety because I get a high finding problems and living in literal world.
Something not many of you know about me. I worked part time as a Paramedic, then a Flight Paramedic on a critical care helicopter and in emergency rooms from 1995 until 2008 and continue to teach today on a part time basis. In my time working on the helicopter I had the unfortunate experience of watching death on a daily basis from some of the most bizarre circumstances that only fate could bring. With thousands of calls under my belt from thousands of flight and from time spent working in emergency rooms I have seen a lot of misfortune and electrical shock was no exception. Many fatal, many not but the fact is there were many. I have seen more than I could stand and wish I never saw half of what I did.
If it can happen, it probably will. Just because you have not seen it in your world does not mean it has not happened and won't happen again. There is a whole other, much larger world outside our own.
So go ahead and play judge, jury and executioner with your one man crusade. In the mean time, I will be keeping people safe. You choose your battles, I'll choose mine.
Click on the first link, look at his face and tell him just how right you are.
http://virginislandsdailynews.com/susquehanna-county-teen-dies-in-electrical-accident-in-wilkes-barre-1.1173726
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Teen-Electrocuted-in-Hide-and-Seek--125418608.html
So, if it can happen, it can happen and did. A lack of 1 simple ground screw and there is a set of parents grieving the loss of their 14 year old son. Lack of continuity in the grounding and bonding of the circuit.
The code says the metal water pipe system is to be bonded therefore the system shall be bonded and I don't care how literal one wants to get with the codes, intent is simply intent which is safety, the entire existence of the codes. For safety. I am not going to compromise safety because I get a high finding problems and living in literal world.
Something not many of you know about me. I worked part time as a Paramedic, then a Flight Paramedic on a critical care helicopter and in emergency rooms from 1995 until 2008 and continue to teach today on a part time basis. In my time working on the helicopter I had the unfortunate experience of watching death on a daily basis from some of the most bizarre circumstances that only fate could bring. With thousands of calls under my belt from thousands of flight and from time spent working in emergency rooms I have seen a lot of misfortune and electrical shock was no exception. Many fatal, many not but the fact is there were many. I have seen more than I could stand and wish I never saw half of what I did.
If it can happen, it probably will. Just because you have not seen it in your world does not mean it has not happened and won't happen again. There is a whole other, much larger world outside our own.
So go ahead and play judge, jury and executioner with your one man crusade. In the mean time, I will be keeping people safe. You choose your battles, I'll choose mine.
Click on the first link, look at his face and tell him just how right you are.
http://virginislandsdailynews.com/susquehanna-county-teen-dies-in-electrical-accident-in-wilkes-barre-1.1173726
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Teen-Electrocuted-in-Hide-and-Seek--125418608.html