My story is about a cable cutter tool, similar to the one shown in the picture, being used to cut armoured cable shown in the insert. It is the WORST tool for the job given the conditions.

  The job required the removal of ten obsolete equipment racks from an equipment room. The equipment room was still live and contained some equipment in service. The racks to be removed were wired to 20 amp circuits in the breaker panel using armoured cable from the rack to the panel. The cables to be removed were located under infinite access flooring. The cables had been tested and clearly tagged.

  To speed up the equipment rack removal the power cable and all rack cables were to cut as it came up out of the floor. The cable under the floor could then be pulled back and removed by a crew working under the floor.

  Five racks had been removed using the above process. On the sixth rack the blades of the cutters cut through a cable that still had AC power. The power for that rack had not been turned off at the power panel.

  The arc caused by the blades cutting into the hot cable carved a pit in the cutters that you could pass a 12 gauge wire through. The spark and the noise startled the individual cutting the cable. As luck would have it, he was not hurt.

  A new individual had joined the crew. He was responsible for testing and tagging the cables. He became distracted when shutting off the breakers and apparently missed one. When asked about the breakers before the rack removal started, he confidently confirmed all breakers for power to the racks had been turned off.

  The individual that was on the sparking end of the cable wanted to take the guy out back and lay into him. The omission may have been overlooked but it was recalled that during the site safety briefing the individual had a casual and dismissive attitude about safety protocols. He had worked hundreds of jobs without a problem. "Errant breaker boy" was what we nicknamed the individual, was transferred out shortly after.

My story is about a cable cutter tool, similar to the one shown in the picture, being used to cut armoured cable shown in the insert. It is the WORST tool for the job given the conditions.

  The job required the removal of ten obsolete equipment racks from an equipment room. The equipment room was still live and contained some equipment in service. The racks to be removed were wired to 20 amp circuits in the breaker panel using armoured cable from the rack to the panel. The cables to be removed were located under infinite access flooring. The cables had been tested and clearly tagged.

  To speed up the equipment rack removal the power cable and all rack cables were to cut as it came up out of the floor. The cable under the floor could then be pulled back and removed by a crew working under the floor.

  Five racks had been removed using the above process. On the sixth rack the blades of the cutters cut through a cable that still had AC power. The power for that rack had not been turned off at the power panel.

  The arc caused by the blades cutting into the hot cable carved a pit in the cutters that you could pass a 12 gauge wire through. The spark and the noise startled the individual cutting the cable. As luck would have it, he was not hurt.

  A new individual had joined the crew. He was responsible for testing and tagging the cables. He became distracted when shutting off the breakers and apparently missed one. When asked about the breakers before the rack removal started, he confidently confirmed all breakers for power to the racks had been turned off.

  The individual that was on the sparking end of the cable wanted to take the guy out back and lay into him. The omission may have been overlooked but it was recalled that during the site safety briefing the individual had a casual and dismissive attitude about safety protocols. He had worked hundreds of jobs without a problem. "Errant breaker boy" was what we nicknamed the individual, was transferred out shortly after.