An arc flash victim tells his tale: “Tell my wife and kids I love them…”
On August 16, 2007, Master Electrician William Giffen, owner of CAMAND Electrical Services, Ottawa, Canada, and an experienced 17-year veteran of electrical maintenance services, was testing secondary fuses at a high-tech data center (after it was hit by lightning for the second time that day) when he was caught in an arc-flash incident at a 13.8kV switch.
“I misread how the switch was designed and didn't realize that the switch was back-fed,” explains Giffen, meaning that he assumed the switch was dead when, in fact, it was live.