"Let's be careful out there....."

Been there and done that.
It was my younger days thought i was tough. Tried to push in a double pole breaker and got the two bus bars shorted to the back of the panel. Then BAM.
All i could see was red for about 3-4 minutes. Then went to the hospital got my eyes washed out and closed one eye for one day. My face,fingers, eye brows, eye lashes were all burnet. Because of that i am wearing prescription glasses. Thank God did not get any molten metal in my eyes or anywhere on me.

Be careful of that silent beast.

I have always told people that more dangerous than the shock is what you you fall off of or on to afterwards.

I was stripping a lead covered cable and shorted it out and while the shock was OK the melted head of my pliers burnt through my shirt and got my left arm. Talk about HOT

When I first started getting into wire work, it was due to rewiring my house. Pretty simple gig, we've all done it - kill the circuit, disconnect any fixtures/switches/receptacles, hook the new to the old, pull on one end and the new wire follows the old through the conduit - reconnect, and PRESTO!

I had killed the circuit to my Dining room, and was replacing the old linen covered, rubber insulated wire for that room with shiny new 12AWG Cu THHN/THWN (Ooooh, new wire smell ).

Well, it was going well, and getting late in the evening (summertime). Was connecting my last run of the day to the existing conductors for power-up, and connected the new white THHN to the existing "neutral".

Well, what I didn't know is that the previous person working on the line (owner? electrician?) had "piggybacked" the living room "neutral" onto the one for the Dining room - and that circuit was still powered, and under load. When my strippers broke through the old rubber insulation, while grounded to the j-box...

<<POP>> a blue flash, and there goes the night vision!

Luckily, I was working above my head, and not looking directly at the arc... but the "backflash" off my surrounding was dazzling. I went to the panel and killed the main for the last 10 minutes worth of work by flashlight.

Of course, my "12 AWG" strippers were now about an "8", but hey, who's counting!

Just got home and found this topic.(Feeling lucky to be here.)Did the service drop-
meter base-to panel in a new modular last week.Took a few days off,with builders ok:he'd take it from there.Got home they say
it needs a couple things to pass insp. go do them and call when complete.Did so at 2:00
yesterday afternoon.On site 8:30 this am,
ran circuits for elec. heat,A/C,water heater, etc.Back at panel pulled 4 circuits in,ready to terminate and just on the wildest whim took out my n/c voltage tester and it lit right up.My first reaction was the tester was haywire,tried it again,it chirps like a bird. Walked out around the corner,and there hangs a shiny new meter.Let me say here the builder had asked for my inspectors number (sometimes not the fastest), but used someone else who had it
powered up later yesterday.We all know the difference in approach to a dead(!) vs. live
equipment.I'm still amazed I didn't get nailed.Very shortly after seeing the meter,
a period of grateful prayer ensued.