“Two NStar workers were hospitalized Friday morning after an overnight fire in a manhole at the corner of Summer and Otis Streets. Both men are at Mass General Hospital, but their conditions are not immediately known. NStar said the men were working in the manhole when an equipment failure sparked the fire. Both streets have been reopened.”

Sad another fatality which used to be common in the US. Grounding has almost totally eliminated these. The US OSHA 1910.269 legally required grounding in most medium voltage to high voltage applications or the worker must consider the conductors energized. Additionally arc rated clothing has been shown to save some shock victims. [...]

ConEd has an exceptional arc flash PPE program. Two injured. One critical according to one report but not critical according to a ConEd report. Most like a manhole arc flash. Standers-by might think the person in the hole was worse off than reality. Arc flashes have substantial smoke which looks [...]

This 2003 article is free with registration to the British Medical Journal. Thought the Brits don’t recognize NFPA 70E they have pretty impeccable results with their methods for electrical safety including “safety by design”. They have required “touch safe” designs installed since 1991 for many applications which makes the average worker much safer [...]

See the story in NY Mag

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No maintenance going on here. Sounds like a cable failure.
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The plumber’s snake was found in the 5kV transformer. No injuries. Basic arc flash training and electrical safety training should be required in all corporate training programs.
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“Kyushu Electric Power Co. said three workers were hospitalized with minor burns and four others were also hurt after sparks flew from electric devices while a regular inspection was being carried out on the No. 1 reactor of the Sendai nuclear plant in southern Japan.”

These happen. If workers are present they must be protected by some means. ConEd uses arc rated clothing (ASTM F1506) and rubber gloves with leather protectors to start and arc flash blankets (ASTM F2676) in some cases. They use NESC electrical safety training for their arc flash training
See ArcWear.com for standard info.
Click here [...]

Note: This is my opinion with ONLY the news article information.
Looks like something I had thought COULD happen has happened. Arc flash in manhole, blows off cover and hits someone.
Prevention of arc flash can help save public too.
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