Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:12 AM
Had a close call at work...
I'm an electrician. I was hooking up the main feeds that come from the utility transformer to the main switch for all of the buildings power. It's a part of my job that I really enjoy.
I had just finished terminating that last of 24 wires that have the diameter of a quarter into its lug on the switch when I noticed it was near quitting time. I got up off my bucket and walked thirty feet to my blueprint table and was filling out time cards for my temporary help. I was chatting with the guys when suddenly a bolt of lightning entered through the doorway and struck one of the girders holding up the roof- right where I was sitting not two minutes before. The crack of the lightning sounded like a grenade and the smoke and dust it caused made me think my switchgear exploded. Everything was fine. No damage to the equipment. But.. I was just sitting where that lightning bolt just hit. Had I not checked my watch and got up off that bucket I think I would have been killed. 
Hug the kids, call your mom, kiss the cook who made you dinner. It can all end in an instant. And I just made 2500 posts.
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50 replies, 6974 views
 50 replies |
Author | Time | Post |
 Had a close call at work... (Original post) |
Callmecrazy | Mar 2016 | OP |
| femmocrat | Mar 2016 | #1 | |
| Callmecrazy | Mar 2016 | #2 | |
| femmocrat | Mar 2016 | #3 | |
| Callmecrazy | Mar 2016 | #4 | |
| Downwinder | Mar 2016 | #5 | |
| Laffy Kat | Mar 2016 | #6 | |
| Orrex | Mar 2016 | #30 | |
| Laffy Kat | Mar 2016 | #31 | |
| Bernardo de La Paz | Mar 2016 | #38 | |
| allan01 | Mar 2016 | #7 | |
| In_The_Wind | Mar 2016 | #8 | |
| Callmecrazy | Mar 2016 | #14 | |
| mountain grammy | Mar 2016 | #9 | |
| IdaBriggs | Mar 2016 | #10 | |
| Thespian2 | Mar 2016 | #11 | |
| Orrex | Mar 2016 | #12 | |
| Callmecrazy | Mar 2016 | #15 | |
| montana_hazeleyes | Mar 2016 | #44 | |
| awoke_in_2003 | Mar 2016 | #29 | |
| lastlib | Mar 2016 | #50 | |
| Depaysement | Mar 2016 | #13 | |
| lastlib | Mar 2016 | #16 | |
| ailsagirl | Mar 2016 | #43 | |
| Tab | Mar 2016 | #17 | |
| Dont call me Shirley | Mar 2016 | #18 | |
| Name removed | Mar 2016 | #19 | |
| Rhythm | Mar 2016 | #20 | |
| rug | Mar 2016 | #21 | |
| greiner3 | Mar 2016 | #22 | |
| Bernardo de La Paz | Mar 2016 | #23 | |
| Major Nikon | Mar 2016 | #37 | |
| mnhtnbb | Mar 2016 | #24 | |
| Plucketeer | Mar 2016 | #25 | |
| retrowire | Mar 2016 | #26 | |
| Laffy Kat | Mar 2016 | #32 | |
| Plucketeer | Mar 2016 | #33 | |
| DUbeornot2be | Mar 2016 | #40 | |
| Liberal_in_LA | Mar 2016 | #27 | |
| riderinthestorm | Mar 2016 | #28 | |
| randr | Mar 2016 | #34 | |
| Callmecrazy | Mar 2016 | #35 | |
| rurallib | Mar 2016 | #36 | |
| whereisjustice | Mar 2016 | #39 | |
| Callmecrazy | Mar 2016 | #48 | |
| DUbeornot2be | Mar 2016 | #41 | |
| Spitfire of ATJ | Mar 2016 | #42 | |
| mazzarro | Mar 2016 | #45 | |
| Turbineguy | Mar 2016 | #46 | |
| LeftishBrit | Mar 2016 | #47 | |
| Callmecrazy | Mar 2016 | #49 |
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:19 AM
1. Holy moly!
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Glad you are OK, Callmecrazy..... or you might look like your avatar today.
It sometimes takes "a bolt from the blue" to make us stop and realize what is most important. 
Congrats on your survival and your 2500 posts!  |
Response to femmocrat (Reply #1)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:28 AM
2. It really does make you step back and think...
Response to Callmecrazy (Reply #2)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:37 AM
3. Do you think all the electrical equipment could have "attracted" it?
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I always hesitate to post anything religious in the Lounge, but I completely understand that you are counting your blessings today. Happy Easter, Callmecrazy.
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Response to femmocrat (Reply #3)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:48 AM
4. The building is constructed of steel and cinder blocks...
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So it's a perfect lightning rod. But the lightning walked in through the doorway.
And yes, I'm counting my blessings this Easter Sunday. And Happy Easter to you, femmocrat.  |
Response to Callmecrazy (Reply #4)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 09:01 AM
5. Have a friend who opened the backdoor
Response to Downwinder (Reply #5)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 09:36 AM
Laffy Kat (15,513 posts)
6. Ball lightening. That is so cool. nt
Response to Laffy Kat (Reply #6)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 12:52 PM
30. I don't approve of language like that on a family forum
Response to Orrex (Reply #30)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 02:37 PM
Laffy Kat (15,513 posts)
31. LOL. Sorry to have offended you.
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I guess I won't share the time I saw ball lightening on an airplane.
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Response to Laffy Kat (Reply #31)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:04 PM
38. I think Orrex is referring to testicular reduction surgery resulting from an 'e' that crept into
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 09:44 AM
8. Congratulations!
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Last edited Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:30 AM - Edit history (1) 
Don't be checkin' out on me before we have a few drinks together.  |
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 09:46 AM
mountain grammy (25,304 posts)
9. Glad you're still with us..
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 09:51 AM
10. So glad you are okay!
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And I know your family is, too!
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Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:02 AM
12. That'll teach you how to conduct yourself.
Response to Callmecrazy (Reply #15)
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 01:22 AM
44. I bet you felt
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really wired after that happened.
All kidding aside , thank goodness you are still here to tell about it. That is just amazing timing! |
Response to Orrex (Reply #12)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 12:39 PM
awoke_in_2003 (34,582 posts)
29. Such a horrible thing to say
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You're grounded
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Response to Orrex (Reply #12)
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 11:01 PM
lastlib (20,312 posts)
50. Don't be l-ionizing the guy when he's so plugged into his work!
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:03 AM
13. Happy Easter
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No matter what your religion is or isn't.
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Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:13 AM
lastlib (20,312 posts)
16. Twenty-five years ago....
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I experienced a similar close call. Was leaning against a utility pole (one with a transformer) in a rainstorm. (My group was on an outdoor exercise, no place nearby to get in out of the rain, so we just had to grin and bear it.) I walked about twenty feet away from that pole toward the other side of the road, and BOOM! Lightning hit the transformer. Sounded (and FELT) like a bomb! Literally knocked me off my feet, splintered the top of the utility pole I had just been leaning against, smoked the transformer. That was too close for comfort!
That was Sunday morning. Monday morning break, I was sitting at a table with several co-workers, who were mostly talking shop. Another lady co-worker comes up, sits down, and asks, "Well, did we all have an exciting weekend?". I deadpanned, "I got hit by lightning." *Dead silence* at that table!  |
Response to lastlib (Reply #16)
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 01:03 AM
ailsagirl (21,911 posts)
43. Wow!!
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There, but for fortune, go you and I...
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Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:25 AM
17. Somebody's buying a lottery ticket tonight, I guess...
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:29 AM
18. Electricians attract volts....LOL...Glad you followed your intuition.
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:51 AM
23. Apparently no lightning arrester on the roof yet
Response to Bernardo de La Paz (Reply #23)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:34 PM
Major Nikon (36,205 posts)
37. Sometimes that doesn't even work
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:51 AM
mnhtnbb (30,509 posts)
24. Yikes!
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 10:56 AM
25. Most of my working life
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I was an electrician. First with aircraft, then with automobiles and finally with heavy industrial machinery. It was during my aircraft electrician time that I had my closest call. It was the electrician's job to install the explosive squibbs in aerial tankers. These charges looked like shotgun shells but were several inches in diameter. Their purpose is to propel a wedge-shaped blade so that the blade severs an air-to-air refueling hose if it should get tangled around the aircraft being fueled in flight.
We had a checklist for a very strict regimen regarding the installation of these charges. And as usual, we followed that checklist to a tee. Once everyone had signed off on that checklist, I would ascend the workstand that we had to use to access the opening where the charges got installed. This had me basically IN a hole and 13 FEET off the ground. My fellow technicians were standing by in the event I needed help. So I load the two charges into their respective barrels and that went just fine. Then I started the huge nuts on that held these explosives in place. The first one went on OK, the second one.....  All I remember was a bright orange flash and instant deafness. Had I not held that big nut in just the right fashion, I'd be doing this keyboard with just one hand. And having been deafened instantaneously, I was hollering at the top of my lungs: "I'M OK, I'M OK, I'M OK!!!" while reflexively ducking out of the hole and walking backwards. I never thought about the fact that the workstand's guard rails had been lowered so that it would fit close enough to the access hole. I stumbled backwards - right off the workstand. Thanking my lucky stars, my fellow workers were there to catch me - literally - as I plummeted!
There are plastic pellets in those charges and a whole bunch of them perforated my right arm. It looked alot more horrific than it really was. But boy did we wake up the nurses station that night! The head nurse took one look at my arm - riddled with chunks of black pellets and looking like hamburger and said: "There's NO WAY I'm gonna work with that!" So with her pouring on the peroxide, I sat there with a pair of tweezers and picked out the pellet pieces - one by one. Like Callmecrazy here, I got to see the aftermath of that brush with death and ponder the alternative. I've had a couple other close calls and I just chalk them up to dumb luck. I like to joke about "the Reaper", but I really don't believe there's a numerical list he's workin' his way through. At 71, I keep marveling at younger folks dropping out for "natural causes". But I'm not anxious about it. My time will come when it comes.  |
Response to Plucketeer (Reply #25)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 02:43 PM
Laffy Kat (15,513 posts)
32. Why wouldn't the nurse do it?
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That was her job, dammit. Glad you survived to tell the story. Man.
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Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 04:51 PM
randr (12,109 posts)
34. Now what do you plan on doing with the extra life you have been given?
Response to randr (Reply #34)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:08 PM
35. I've used about four lives so far...
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I hope this isn't the last.
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Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:31 PM
rurallib (60,507 posts)
36. damn good thing your watch was working well
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Sun Mar 27, 2016, 11:31 PM
39. Wonder if hooking up the panel you were working on changed the building ground somehow?
Response to whereisjustice (Reply #39)
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 04:33 PM
48. The grounding electrodes weren't terminated yet...
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 07:14 AM
45. Wow! That was a close one. n/t
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 07:42 AM
Turbineguy (35,846 posts)
46. Gadzooks!
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 07:50 AM
LeftishBrit (40,044 posts)
47. WOW! Glad you're OK! How scary!
Response to Callmecrazy (Original post)
Mon Mar 28, 2016, 04:38 PM
49. I've had some close calls in 22 years at the trade...
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Some of them were even expected. But how the hell do you plan ahead for a lightning bolt to walk in through the door?
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