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This is from an email I sent to some pals two days ago, but wanted to share with some of you experimenters on this forum since we often deal with electricity and high voltages. A lot of you work with wooden prototype constructs. The mechanism by which this rare fire almost burnt down my office bears some interesting static electricity concepts -- particularly in regard to free electrons in small quantities of ungrounded metal, etc. 
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Hello all,
I want to tell you about an interesting little fire that I put out in my lab early this morning since it is something any one can accidentally do. Feel free to FWD to your family and pals.
This is a pretty rare kind of fire, but can occur under the right conditions, and those conditions are really very common to the homeowner and do-it-yourselfer. The story will shock you.
Last time I saw anything like this was an incident where a solid rocket booster factory blew up and flung 1,000 pound cattle in the area nearly a mile away! Talk about roast beef.
More commonly, you hear of little shop fires now and then with oily rags properly or improperly stored. In welding, you are always dealing with fire danger from embers or spark catching rags, clothing, and grease on fire. Putting out little fires is a pretty common shop gig, and so you always keep a clean shop with care and distance regarding combustibles. Fiberglass and epoxy resins (especially aircraft/ spacecraft blends) carelessly tossed into dumpsters have also been known to cause fires to trash bins (due to their high heat), and what happened here is a similar issue but all the more rare.
Now, I've been working in shops and labs since age 10. That makes almost 27 years that I've been around everything from little electrical fires, to putting out small welding fires, to detonation of various explosives and rocket fuel. I've been around some pretty volatile stuff and played with more wild firecrackers and rockets than kids dream about, but, as in this case, it is the little things that seem less dangerous which we often totally overlook. With critical things, you tend to be very careful. With more casual things -- such as your own car or hobby projects -- often we let our guard down; Particularly in this case thoughtlessness got to me, and it's so easy to do that I want to tell you about it. Almost lost part of our house, the whole house, or maybe even our lives last night.
As an aircraft mechanic, I've put out some pretty dangerous shop fires. Had a stubborn co-worker once who kept degreasing engines with gasoline rather than solvent (which takes extra time and labor) until one day he shorted some loose landing light wires with the spray jet and learned not to do that ever again! He torched the whole engine compartment, nearly blew himself up, almost burnt down a very expensive bird, and the boss was sure pissed!
* Some of my old, Catholic school bad boy chums are notorious for blowing out three stories of engineering building windows among a Saturday afternoon scramjet backfire where improvised C-4 wasn't slowed down enough. Whoops! Nobody hurt or in school that day, but the higher ups banned live engine tests after that. We ruined it for everyone. 
I've been near a variety explosions that almost were, and God has always been kind to me, as again today. Where others often aren't, I've always tried to be safe. I try and, even then, there's always risk or potential to get hurt or be careless about something. To date, I have never once been shocked by AC current or even my DC welder from being a little overly paranoid about electricity. People sometimes laugh at me among all their machismo, but I'm a stickler about electrocution and fire, and yet here it snuck in on me.
All in all, 27 years of working among electricity without ever being shocked by more dangerous electricity says it all. I don't even work on a live panel box. It's not worth it to me. When I mess with house electricity, I turn the whole thing off regardless of the inconvenience and I mark the panel box so nobody comes along to flick the switch while I'm working on wires. I treat any wire as if it wants to kill me, no matter how small; for high voltage wires are tiny, too! (Capacitors can also bite you).
For honesty and now that I recall it, I should revise this to state that only time I have been near killed by electricity has been once among working engines during run-up tests and timing adjustment -- caught by continuous ignition coil output that was hard to break away from after it bit me. Flowed through my left arm through the heart and to my right arm that was grounded to the vehicle structure. It dropped me to my knees with heart flutter, daze, and disrupted rhythm for over a minute, but the adrenalin, anger, and panic of dying too damn young also gave me a good jumpstart again. Knocked the wind out of me for a good half hour, but, as with Rifers and their medical work, I also felt great for a few weeks thereafter. Wild boost of Chi. As a side note, I should add that my great grandmother was struck by lightning as a girl and oddly lived. I presume the main bolt didn't hit and fry her, but hit in the viscinity. And she lived beyond age 99. I forget the number. Could have been over 100 years. We've had a couple long runners like that; Longest going to 102 years.
Sometimes you do hokey things among initial rigging and testing of temporary assemblies (Quickly taped up wires and all that; Temporary is always a dangerous affair around a farm with a tendency to become hokey permanent; I've had my sins and burnt wires at times), but, on permanent installations and things that will be inaccessible for years, you have to be all the more careful -- not overloading wires, always going overkill with wire gauge selection and fusing where possible, short prevention, proper bracketing of wires, always mounting wires above fuel hoses, etc. As an aircraft mechanic -- half of which is more like being a household electrician for aircraft structures -- I've always been careful. The usual house electrician doesn't run wires right alongside fuel and hydraulic lines, but that's what we do. Never a single mechanical, electrical, or fire issue with my birds among thousands of sorties flown. Airplanes catching on fire in the air is a major mechanic no no, so fanatical about such things is the way you're supposed to be. In engineering, same thing....always extensive care to prevent fires. I do try.
At the moment, I'm working on some mock ups and hokey prototypes using pretty high voltage electrical equipment for a new kind of electrical generator that'll put out a lot of power on almost no fuel burn (Okay, none, but I downplay it). But, you have to be careful because high voltage or any form of electric current in excess of just one Amp through the body is enough to stop the human heart. Power coils are also tricky little beasts in that, when rapidly shut down, the back voltage and current can be like lightning! Most people think of Dr. Frankenstein gear that goes crazy when you throw the switch, but, with what I work on, it's when you shut the monster down too abruptly that you can get power surge enough to arc right on over the switch, kill you, backflow into your outlet, and explode a residential tranformer while knocking out power to a whole block. To prevent that, you take greater care and isolate equipment. But, that's part of what I cultivate here: harnessed lightning! And, high voltage requires some extra attention beyond conventional electrical care due to the ability of that lightning to jump through air. That high voltage issue is part of what happened here but not at all from my equipment.
Unless you're working in a chemical environment -- such as piecing together explosives and rocket engines or trying to prevent damage to electronic equipment -- we normally don't pay much attention to static electricity in the home. But, here's what happened to me and what can easily happen to any of you:
Yesterday, I was assembling better shelves and workbenches in my lab. I had a temporary shelving setup that was getting pretty dangerous and ugly for the hundreds of pounds it carried. Could have lost some costly lab gear and had much the mess to clean up, so I took time out to upgrade it. I also needed to open up more workbench area as it was getting pretty crowded atop my more solid platforms here. They were just oak plywood sheets that were sagging and flimsy with no serious bracketing. What I've built today you can lay a fat man upon or set even an engine block atop with ease.
-------------------------
Hello all,
I want to tell you about an interesting little fire that I put out in my lab early this morning since it is something any one can accidentally do. Feel free to FWD to your family and pals.
This is a pretty rare kind of fire, but can occur under the right conditions, and those conditions are really very common to the homeowner and do-it-yourselfer. The story will shock you.
Last time I saw anything like this was an incident where a solid rocket booster factory blew up and flung 1,000 pound cattle in the area nearly a mile away! Talk about roast beef.
More commonly, you hear of little shop fires now and then with oily rags properly or improperly stored. In welding, you are always dealing with fire danger from embers or spark catching rags, clothing, and grease on fire. Putting out little fires is a pretty common shop gig, and so you always keep a clean shop with care and distance regarding combustibles. Fiberglass and epoxy resins (especially aircraft/ spacecraft blends) carelessly tossed into dumpsters have also been known to cause fires to trash bins (due to their high heat), and what happened here is a similar issue but all the more rare. Now, I've been working in shops and labs since age 10. That makes almost 27 years that I've been around everything from little electrical fires, to putting out small welding fires, to detonation of various explosives and rocket fuel. I've been around some pretty volatile stuff and played with more wild firecrackers and rockets than kids dream about, but, as in this case, it is the little things that seem less dangerous which we often totally overlook. With critical things, you tend to be very careful. With more casual things -- such as your own car or hobby projects -- often we let our guard down; Particularly in this case thoughtlessness got to me, and it's so easy to do that I want to tell you about it. Almost lost part of our house, the whole house, or maybe even our lives last night.
As an aircraft mechanic, I've put out some pretty dangerous shop fires. Had a stubborn co-worker once who kept degreasing engines with gasoline rather than solvent (which takes extra time and labor) until one day he shorted some loose landing light wires with the spray jet and learned not to do that ever again!
He torched the whole engine compartment, nearly blew himself up, almost burnt down a very expensive bird, and the boss was sure pissed! * Some of my old, Catholic school bad boy chums are notorious for blowing out three stories of engineering building windows among a Saturday afternoon scramjet backfire where improvised C-4 wasn't slowed down enough. Whoops!
Nobody hurt or in school that day, but the higher ups banned live engine tests after that. We ruined it for everyone. I've been near a variety explosions that almost were, and God has always been kind to me, as again today. Where others often aren't, I've always tried to be safe. I try and, even then, there's always risk or potential to get hurt or be careless about something. To date, I have never once been shocked by AC current or even my DC welder from being a little overly paranoid about electricity. People sometimes laugh at me among all their machismo, but I'm a stickler about electrocution and fire, and yet here it snuck in on me.
All in all, 27 years of working among electricity without ever being shocked by more dangerous electricity says it all. I don't even work on a live panel box. It's not worth it to me. When I mess with house electricity, I turn the whole thing off regardless of the inconvenience and I mark the panel box so nobody comes along to flick the switch while I'm working on wires. I treat any wire as if it wants to kill me, no matter how small; for high voltage wires are tiny, too! (Capacitors can also bite you).
For honesty and now that I recall it, I should revise this to state that only time I have been near killed by electricity has been once among working engines during run-up tests and timing adjustment -- caught by continuous ignition coil output that was hard to break away from after it bit me. Flowed through my left arm through the heart and to my right arm that was grounded to the vehicle structure. It dropped me to my knees with heart flutter, daze, and disrupted rhythm for over a minute, but the adrenalin, anger, and panic of dying too damn young also gave me a good jumpstart again.
Knocked the wind out of me for a good half hour, but, as with Rifers and their medical work, I also felt great for a few weeks thereafter. Wild boost of Chi. As a side note, I should add that my great grandmother was struck by lightning as a girl and oddly lived. I presume the main bolt didn't hit and fry her, but hit in the viscinity. And she lived beyond age 99. I forget the number. Could have been over 100 years. We've had a couple long runners like that; Longest going to 102 years.Sometimes you do hokey things among initial rigging and testing of temporary assemblies (Quickly taped up wires and all that; Temporary is always a dangerous affair around a farm with a tendency to become hokey permanent; I've had my sins and burnt wires at times), but, on permanent installations and things that will be inaccessible for years, you have to be all the more careful -- not overloading wires, always going overkill with wire gauge selection and fusing where possible, short prevention, proper bracketing of wires, always mounting wires above fuel hoses, etc. As an aircraft mechanic -- half of which is more like being a household electrician for aircraft structures -- I've always been careful. The usual house electrician doesn't run wires right alongside fuel and hydraulic lines, but that's what we do. Never a single mechanical, electrical, or fire issue with my birds among thousands of sorties flown. Airplanes catching on fire in the air is a major mechanic no no, so fanatical about such things is the way you're supposed to be. In engineering, same thing....always extensive care to prevent fires. I do try.
At the moment, I'm working on some mock ups and hokey prototypes using pretty high voltage electrical equipment for a new kind of electrical generator that'll put out a lot of power on almost no fuel burn (Okay, none, but I downplay it). But, you have to be careful because high voltage or any form of electric current in excess of just one Amp through the body is enough to stop the human heart. Power coils are also tricky little beasts in that, when rapidly shut down, the back voltage and current can be like lightning! Most people think of Dr. Frankenstein gear that goes crazy when you throw the switch, but, with what I work on, it's when you shut the monster down too abruptly that you can get power surge enough to arc right on over the switch, kill you, backflow into your outlet, and explode a residential tranformer while knocking out power to a whole block. To prevent that, you take greater care and isolate equipment. But, that's part of what I cultivate here: harnessed lightning! And, high voltage requires some extra attention beyond conventional electrical care due to the ability of that lightning to jump through air. That high voltage issue is part of what happened here but not at all from my equipment.
Unless you're working in a chemical environment -- such as piecing together explosives and rocket engines or trying to prevent damage to electronic equipment -- we normally don't pay much attention to static electricity in the home. But, here's what happened to me and what can easily happen to any of you:
Yesterday, I was assembling better shelves and workbenches in my lab. I had a temporary shelving setup that was getting pretty dangerous and ugly for the hundreds of pounds it carried. Could have lost some costly lab gear and had much the mess to clean up, so I took time out to upgrade it. I also needed to open up more workbench area as it was getting pretty crowded atop my more solid platforms here. They were just oak plywood sheets that were sagging and flimsy with no serious bracketing. What I've built today you can lay a fat man upon or set even an engine block atop with ease.
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