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Everyone—or at least everyone should—knows that an arc flash can be deadly at worst, horrific with severe injuries at the least. And, there is a good chance everyone knows that an arc flash explosion can burn hotter than the sun's surface temperature. In fact, a December 2007 article in the Journal of Safety Research said, "Next to the laser, the electric arc is the hottest event on earth, with recorded temperatures as high as 35,000° F" (Kowalski Trakofler, Barret 598). But, you may ask why it's important to know this and what should you do about it.

One reason it is important is that studies show it isn't just the "rookies" who get singed by an arc blast. The Journal of Safety Research article was based on extensive research done on arc flash injuries in the workplace (with particular focus on mining-related electrical safety). The authors interviewed more than 800 arc flash victims for the article. One of the projects primary discoveries was that many of the previously held beliefs about "experience" being the key to preventing injuries turned out to be unfounded. In fact, what the authors discovered was:

• In Phase One incidents [arc flash victims from a statistically viable sampling spanning 11 years], it was determined that in a substantial number of instances the worker recognized the hazard and made a decision to proceed with behavior that led to the incident.
• In practically every interview in Phase Two [conducted with selected industry and mining arc flash victims], the issue of making a judgment/decision to complete an assignment by taking a short-cut was mentioned even though the worker knew it was wrong to do so (Kowalski-Trakofler, Barret 605).

In the end, the researches discovered that people working in the field made bad calls. They took "short-cuts," which turned out to be "judgment/decisions" that went wrong and they got burned. They did so regardless of experience.

Generally, the study determined that this was because the victims were in a hurry for one reason or another (pressure from management, customers or other factors), or because it was late in the day and they were tired. Experience is of little use when someone's in a rush or no longer thinking straight.

Jim Phillips and Mike Frain wrote an article that appeared in Power Engineer magazine (Nov. 2007) that summed up this idea, saying, "You hear many stories of people who have been involved in flashover incidents and very often the age of the victim is 40-plus years old, which shows that experience is not always a solution to this problem." The point being, even if you have a seasoned crew, or even if you are the seasoned crew, mistakes happen.

How to prevent injury and death?

While it's true that training, supervision and a positive safety attitude toward guidelines and regulatory practices in a workplace go a long way to preventing injury, the fact is that no amount of training or management can prevent human error.

However, there are some things completely in our control, and there are errors that can be prevented with far greater consistency. Those errors lie in the accuracy of our math, which in turn involves some other critical details.