Author - wayne rose

Submitted By - wayne c rose when i was an apprentice i worked in the delta where we had a lot o 3 phase rice wells & what we called hq 5 delta meter sockets. the bad part about these sockets was the fact that the wild leg was in the middle & it went straight through. In other words when you pulled the meter you killed 2 of the phases but the wild leg was still  HOT. I journeyman  transfered to the hill country & NEARLY all of my 3 phase had lighting load so we used a hq7 socket that killed everything when you pulled the meter. But a crew installed a 3 phase serve to a water department lift pump & it had an hq5 socket . An electrician calle dme to kill the power to this pump to repair the switch gear that had been damaged by lightning. I started to open the bank but i decided i would just pull the meter. I pulled the mwter laid it on the ground & went inside the building to se rhe electrician. he showed me where lightning had damaged one of the busses. It was the wild leg Bus. I looked at it & reached out to touch it 7 got hit with 400 volts standing on a concrete floor. The electrician thought i was messing with him because he saw me pull the meter. I told him do not touch anything until i open the bank. I didn't forget that again