This article was posted 08/07/2006 and is most likely outdated.

The Other Electrical Hazard: Electrical Arc Blast Burns
 

 
Topic - Safety
Subject - The Other Electrical Hazard: Electrical Arc Blast Burns

August 7, 2006  

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The Other Electrical Hazard: Electrical Arc Blast Burns

 

imageElectric 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.

 

Click here or on the image above to read the entire Electrical Arc Blast Burns article produced by AVO Training Institute, Inc. The AVO Technical Resource Center provides electrical reference books, industry standards, training materials, personal protective equipment, insulated hand tools, and safety tools.

 

 

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Comments
  • Hello mr. Holt, I've been told differently about the temperature of an "electrical arc". I was told by an instructor from "NTT" , and also a phycisist from "stanford university" , that the temperature of an "electric arc" is 9 times hotter than the surface of the sun, and it's the 3rd hottest flame known to man. The only other flames that excede the "electric arc" are "neuclear fision" and "the lazer". I'm sorry to say i'm not sure of the order of these.

    mike peterson

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