The Other Electrical Hazard: Electrical Arc Blast Burns

 

Electric arc burns make up a substantial portion of the injuries from electrical malfunctions. The extremely high temperatures of these arcs, about four times as high as that of the sun’s surface, can cause fatal burns at up to about five feet (152 cm.), and major burns at up to about ten feet (305 cm) distance.

 

Almost everyone is aware that electrical shock can be a hazard to life, although the minor shocks that many have experienced with no dire consequences tend to make one somewhat careless of this. There is another hazard which few appreciate, which we do not even need to touch to incur injury. This is the radiation burn from the fierce fire of electric arcs, due to short circuit developing from poor electrical contact or failure of insulation. The electric arc between metals is, next to the laser, the hottest thing on earth, or about four times as hot as the sun’s surface. Where high arc currents are involved, burns from such arcs can be fatal where the victim is even several feet from the arc, and debilitating burns at distances of ten feet are common. Clothing is ignited at distances of several feet; this itself can cause fatal burns, because the clothing cannot be removed or extinguished quickly enough to prevent serious burns over much of the body skin area.

 

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