George, that is true. In Florida the code "reacted" to a dead guy.
There is nothing that prevents a contractor from bonding steel studs. In fact it may even be implied if you have a wide view of what is "structural" or "likely to be energized".
This would not even be a question if the family sued the box manufacturer for not providing a bonding means on the box.
They would all have one as soon as the line could be turned around. Then it would be a 110.3(B)
John, until there was a fault path there was no arc to detect. AFCIs look for current anomalies. Even if the wall did provide a significant load, a power driven screw may have made a clean "make" of that circuit. Your best hope would be that it was a 30ma or greater ground fault. If this was tapconned/shot pinned into a concrete slab, tied to the Ufer, it probably would trip a AFCI or GFCI but if it was on a wood deck, maybe not so much. You might not even get a trip if this was stem wall construction with a floating slab, sitting on visqueen. Usually it is on notched block and poured with the stem wall cell pour tho, in Fla, so it would be integral with the Ufer.
