I got energized the other night, thought I'd share what happened.
We were demoing a grocery store. A former ice cream parlor had a short hot water heater in it. The foreman said to demo it (remove it). I pulled the plate off to reveal the wire nuts. The foreman put his tester on it to show that it was dead. He said, "It's dead. Go ahead and demo it." I put my tester on it right behind him. My tester showed no power. The foreman went around the room, tracing other circuits, flipping a couple of switches. I disconnected the wire nuts and my finger touched a wire and it energized me. I turned to the foreman and said, "I just got hit. This thing's hot." He said, "No way." I put my tester on it and it showed power. He put his on it and it showed power. We were surprised.
I suggested that maybe the hot water heater might have been connected through a switch, since he was turning switches on and off during the time I was removing wire nuts. He said, "No, it wouldn't be wired through a switch."
Nobody was able to get into the electrical room to flip circuit breakers on at that time, so I know that wasn't what caused the circuit to be energized.
I'm lucky because I was standing in water at the time, but it didn't go over my soles to the leather and soak in, and I didn't have any holes in the soles. The water was about 1/4" deep. All it would have taken was a thumbtack in the sole of my shoe, or the hole left behind by one, to put a grounding path right to my foot!
I think the hot water heater was somehow wired through a switch. We'll never know because we just had to keep on demoing the stuff out.
Just when you think you've done enough to be safe, something unexpected can come out of nowhere to bite you. Being careful isn't enough, you have to be clairvoyant.
Can anybody here tell me a story of how they got energized so I can learn from their mistakes? I've heard of people leaving wrenches in switchgear to fall down later and go phase to phase, blowing up in a guy's face. Sometimes these things come out of nowhere and certain "shocking" situations are very hard to predict.
