I've been watching for apparent arc flash explosions outside the U.S. to get a feel for the real numbers of arc flash incidents. What I'm finding are that there are several per week, but a a lot of them are not work related. For example, on this past Wednesday the Delmarva Daily Times reported:

"Someone apparently tampering with an electrical box at the Princess Anne Industrial Park was killed this afternoon when the equipment exploded. Police at the scene said they could not identify the remains. 'There’s no way to tell who it is,' said Police Chief Scott Keller. 'There’s not much left of them.'"

[url='http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20120223/SH01/202230361/Would-copper-thief-dies-Princess-Anne-blast?odyssey=obinsite']Read the article here.[/url]

Typically the articles don't have much detail, so it can be a guess as to whether it was an arc flash incident. The Delmarva Daily Times published additional details about the person killed in this incident in an article they published today.

Several years ago I reviewed all of the OSHA fatality reports for a 12 month period and found very few arc flash related fatalities in the U.S.. I am now in the process of conducting a similar review of OSHA fatality reports for 2011. I'll start publishing the results on the [url='http://blog.safe-workplace.com/']Safe Workplace blog[/url] starting this coming Monday.

Related Past Posts:
[url='http://blog.labelprinters.org/2010/08/how-many-arc-flash-fatalities-are-there.html']How Many Arc Flash Fatalities Are There?[/url]
[url='http://blog.labelprinters.org/2009/04/osha-citations-issued-for-failure-to.html']OSHA Citations For Lack Of Electrical Safety[/url]
[url='http://blog.labelprinters.org/2006/12/video-of-arc-flash-demonstration.html']Video Of Arc Flash Demonstration[/url]


[url='http://www.duralabel.com/duralabel-9000mps-t/index.php'][/url]


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