For you Wanna-Be Electricians.....

I was an on site hvac mech at a food processing plant for a few yrs like 15yrs ago.....lost a 575v 30 ton compressor (I had 36 of them and over 100 pices of equip) in an area of the building where we never lost comps.......was checking it out with my personal Fluke meter......618v......wierd.....we rarely ever saw more than 578.....would explain the burnt comp......thought maybe my meter was f***ed.......went back to the shop and got one of the companies meters......went back to the exact lugs on the splitter box that I had just checked 5 min earlier....BOOOM!!!!!!......panel above exploded.......huge white light took up my entire field of vision.......lots of room behind me to be blown back, lucky I wasnt on a ladder as I often was.....set the pole out on the road on fire, fire dept had to put it out......emrg helo airlifted me from the site and spent 10 days in the burn unit in Toronto.......3rd degree burns on my fingers, 1st on my arms and face......was lucky, made a full recovery.....

turned out the cheapo meter was only rated to 600, not 618......I had the blown up meter around for awhile, the fuse was clearly not blown.....I did not have it on amps or dc volts as was initially accused.....the meter was a UEI POS!!!!......I worked commercial for a few more yrs but WAY happy in resi where I work for myself, make way more money and only see 230......:)
 
came into contact w/ 1440 v high line several years ago (March 1 2001 - 9:30 AM actually) while in a tree out front. juice started coming through the sopping wet branch I had my hand on. when my body started twitching, I jumped 16 feet to the ground and totally f'd up my foot. unfortunately I didn't pass out from the pain. some branches caught on fire and the whole conflaguration killed power to the neighborhood. power company reps said I was lucky to be alive as they had 2 guys die the year before in a similar incident. guess I'm lucky to be here, kinda bolstered my gratitude. I don't really feel inclined anymore to complain about folks on the dock asking me silly questions about my boat. - Jeff
 
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