I've been an electrician for about 18 years now and I'm very confident in what
I do and I still ended up in hospital.
I've got up that day, a standard day not
thinking anything of it, I said I'll bounce in and do that power quality
assessment we had to do. I'd assess the work to be done live and
I was very confident what had to get done was possible to do it live, all I need
to do is clip on these four crocodile clips which isn't a hard task you know what I
mean I can see the busbar. I've clipped on the first one and then I went to
clip on the second one, as soon as I touched it, it just went bffff - this white and
yellow flash, you know I mean, on my face and just a really disgusting noise.
I definitely wasn't unconscious but I sort of realised what happened and I could
just smell all my hair had burnt and my skin was all burning, and I could see all my
clothes were burnt and things my skin was hanging off and that I was just all black.
So when I first found out that he had the accident I was at work but when I
answered the phone I couldn't actually understand what he was saying it was all
gibberish and but all I got was 'I'm in a bad way, I'm being taken to hospital'.
I just, like, panicked, yeah.
In Mark's case while he was working in the switchboard,
as a result of attempting to pull off two pieces of insulation, he exposed the
risk of of two separate electrical phases in bridging that out with his
screwdriver he's created a large arc flash with high fault current available
inside the switchboard, which resulted in a large fireball which burnt Mark considerably.
When I first walked in to see him he was in a hospital bed and he
was just black and black and his hair was singed and...
The injuries I actually sustained would have been, it was actually 12 per cent body burns so that involved skin
grafts, for that to heal they cut or they grind your skin off and then lay that on top of the burns.
So, the next day after the skin grafts, as soon as I walked into his room in the burns ward
he was just head to toe in bandages, he looked like a mummy... I think that's when it hit me.
The first week was was not an enjoyable time, I was in splints, you know what I mean
full arm splints, leg splints, couldn't even pick my own nose.
Every second day I had to get all my dressings took off, so you've got dressings stuck on
to skin grafts or sticking to you, so you need to go in your shower and get all
wetted up to release like all the stickiness of it and then take it off
and it just sticks to your skin and it's sore. I didn't know what I was gonna look like.
I ended up in hospital for three weeks and, yeah, off work for three months
and what I didn't realise then, during with what I was going through, how it hurt Mel and how it had
emotionally strained her, mentally and emotionally. It's not a nice feeling you
know, that the person you love is obviously upset and hurt because of what's happened to you.
Mark definitely didn't realise how much his accident had affected me. The realisation of how serious it was.
He could have died, yeah, just had no idea.
When Mark started having his rehab, that was hard because he had been in
hospital for such a long period of time without moving, he was really happy
when he called me that he told me he'd walked for the first time, with a zimmer
frame, so he still had to lean on it, but I was really proud.
It was also a big emotional burden that's getting put on your loved ones, whether it be your wife, you know what I
mean, your family, your parents. Something like this puts an emotional burden on them.
He loves his work, he loves to be always, you know, keeping his mind active
so when he couldn't go straight back to work that also held some frustrations
with some, I think some, a little bit of anger. I was really happy to see him back at work.
I do want to be with him for the rest of my life so I am grateful that he is healed.
You can prevent arc-flash by eliminating the hazard. Turn the power off and
isolate the equipment, even if that means rescheduling the work for another time.
Remember, working near energised parts can be just as dangerous as performing live work.
Arc-flash risk isn't just limited to large switchboards, they can
also occur in smaller switchboards, electrical supply pillars and even large
electrical equipment, so plan your work and always follow your safe working procedures.
Yeah I think one thing that I would like to get out there after my
accident is just to all the other sparkies out there just, just don't work live.
Don't put yourself in situations where
like I was, just because you're trying to please the client, just because you're
trying to get the job done faster. If you've got a wife, kids, family, like it's just not worth it.
Nothing's worth your life.