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Arc Flash: ‘It Will Never Happen to Me’ - One of the UK’s Most Overlooked Safety Risks

John Beirne

The HSE states that around 1,000 workplace electrical incidents are reported to them each year including circa 25 fatalities a year.  However, it is also believed that arc flash incidents are far higher than officially reported.



I would like to think that you would all agree that the above mentioned amount of incidents is not acceptable.  Therefore, how can we reduce the risk of arc flash?  I am working with IET Safety Panel reviewing the ‘Arc Flash Protection Fact Sheet’ and I need your help to understand why we have so many incidents and fatalities and investigate barriers to reduce such incidents and fatalities.



Some of my thoughts are:



PPE Regulations (EU) 2016/425.



Does PPE Regulations (EU) 2016/425 satisfy your requirements?  (yes we need to drop the EU).



Do they need amending and if so where and why?



Reporting.



Is there a requirement to improve the incident reporting format, to provide greater clarity and understanding of how such incidents occur, thus allowing us to look at the human factor elements?



Training.



Is there a requirement to improve training and or standards with respect to arc flash?



There is a various amount of literature about control measures and how to mitigate arc flash, which can be confusing.  Is there a generic risk assessment for Switching (Either LV or HV) that identifies arc flash?



Is the arc flash risk assessment understandable and easy to follow?



Personal Experience.



You may have witnessed arc flash and wish to inform us why you believed it occurred.



Thank you for reading this forum and trying to promote a safer working environment for your fellow electrical engineers.  I look forward to your constructive replies.



Kind regards,



John


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  • 0
    Serious arc flash accidents are rare in UK.

    Some of the greatest risks are IME, when electricians with experience only of domestic and similar size work, are left without any extra training or PPE to work on high capacity switchgear.


    "Must be OK he is fully qualified" and the infamous "company policy prohibits live working, so no PPE is needed beyond the polyester uniform"


    I have witnessed a significant arc flash incident in a large department store. A young and not very experienced electrician fiddled with a defective busbar system, that was fed from an adjacent transformer via 400 amp fuses. I know not exactly what went wrong, but there was a substantial flashover which operated all three fuses. He was burnt badly enough to require a week in hospital. No PPE was worn beyond the normal polyester uniform.

    I was aware of an incident at an office block where I was the engineer, but was on holiday at the time. On my return from holiday I was due to replace the batteries in a large UPS. I had done such work before and felt well able to do it. The new batteries were delivered earlier than expected, and a keen young manager instructed that the holiday relief should fit the batteries. This ended in a very substantial blow up with injuries and destruction of property.

    I suspect that the two battery strings were connected incorrectly.

    The keen young manager was sacked and the two electricians resigned. 


    On the old forum is a thread in which I suffered an arc flash incident but escaped injury due to wearing suitable PPE.

    link to old forum.
Reply
  • 0
    Serious arc flash accidents are rare in UK.

    Some of the greatest risks are IME, when electricians with experience only of domestic and similar size work, are left without any extra training or PPE to work on high capacity switchgear.


    "Must be OK he is fully qualified" and the infamous "company policy prohibits live working, so no PPE is needed beyond the polyester uniform"


    I have witnessed a significant arc flash incident in a large department store. A young and not very experienced electrician fiddled with a defective busbar system, that was fed from an adjacent transformer via 400 amp fuses. I know not exactly what went wrong, but there was a substantial flashover which operated all three fuses. He was burnt badly enough to require a week in hospital. No PPE was worn beyond the normal polyester uniform.

    I was aware of an incident at an office block where I was the engineer, but was on holiday at the time. On my return from holiday I was due to replace the batteries in a large UPS. I had done such work before and felt well able to do it. The new batteries were delivered earlier than expected, and a keen young manager instructed that the holiday relief should fit the batteries. This ended in a very substantial blow up with injuries and destruction of property.

    I suspect that the two battery strings were connected incorrectly.

    The keen young manager was sacked and the two electricians resigned. 


    On the old forum is a thread in which I suffered an arc flash incident but escaped injury due to wearing suitable PPE.

    link to old forum.
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