Author -
Submitted By -Lack Of Communication
This accident happened because of lack of communication. We had a bad underground feeder cable in a section of town. The section of cable that was bad was double lugged on one end of the 600 amp switch and then leapfrogged to two others at the other end. The crew went out to test the cable. They had to un-lug the one end to see which section was bad. After determining where the fault was they tagged the cabinets and left the one unlugged. The crew that tested the cable said that they would go lug the cabinet back up. They forgot and didn't and left the area. After repairs the crew that fixed the cable went to energize it from one of the switches that wasn't double lugged. This was a old switch that had 3 blade switches instead of a gang switch. The first switch went ok but the second upon being closed arced and caused a phase to phase fault that burned the cabinet down to the ground. Luckily the only thing that happened to the crew was some pitted glasses. The test crew had left two phases together in a blanket in the other end causing the phase to phase fault. This was a lack of communication and luckily no one got hurt. Please talk to each other guys. It could save a life. And always check both ends of what you are doing.