RE: Grim Safety Reminder

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "John H. Couture by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <couturejh-at-mgte-dot-com>


The cable installer may not have been "very stupid". He may have been a
victim of the stupidity of safety engineers that do not understand the "long
spark". Sparks from distribution lines can be several meters long. Refer to
"The Long Spark" page 231 of "Lighting", Volume 1, edited by R.H.Golde,
Academic Press, 1977.

I have read of several of these accidents and investigated a couple of these
electrocutions. The long spark is created under special conditions that are
not well understood. People can be several meters from the power lines and
still get zapped. If you operate a Tesla coil outdoors keep in mind that a
12 KV distribution line can kill you from further away than you may think.

John Couture

-----------------------------


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 7:00 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Grim Safety Reminder


Original poster: "Jonathan Peakall by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jpeakall-at-madlabs.info>

All,

I am a firefighter with the Albion-Little River VFD. Two days ago we had a
call
which is a grim reminder to those of us that work with high voltage.

A cable installer (being VERY stupid) managed to catch the HV lines above
his
"cherry picker". When we arrived, he was still smoldering, we had to put him
out. Literally. One of his arms was gone, just plain gone. The other was a
stump. His genitals were a small melted lump. 40%-60% of his body had 3rd
degree burns. In my 5 years with the FD, I have never seen anything nearly
as
horrifying. And we see stuff.

Unbelievably, the poor bastard lived. He has a wife and 3 kids with another
on
the way.

Anyway, it really impressed me. I can tell you that the image of this guy
will
be with me for the rest of my life, every time I am employing High Voltage.

Sorry to inject such a downer note on the list. But it has been on my mind.

Regards and SAFE COILING!!!

Jonathan Peakall