I don't know if it was the biggest wake up call, but it ranks right up there with me.
Back in the day a local Pizza place was enlarging a bathroom to make it accessible for the handicapped and the Panel had to be moved a couple feet to be outside the room.
The SE conductors had to be taken out, conduit extended a few feet, and longer ones pulled in.
Outside, I had the meter pulled and was loosening the lugs to get the wires out. The Neutral lug also had a solid bare copper wire in it that went to a Bonding bushing on the EMT connector below.
Right now I can't exactly picture how it happened, but there must have been a lot of tension on that bare copper because when things were loosened it somehow whipped into a live terminal and sprayed what felt like hot sand into my face. Luckily, I had closed my eyes before it hit.
I was lucky that day for sure.
Bill
