A Transcript | Arc Flash Survivor Story by Jason Brozen

Published 29 Jul 2021

➡ Read the original story here: Arc Flash Survivor Story – Jason Brozen

Let’s Hear Jason’s Survival Story

‘You know I ended up working on a big piece of gear, 2500 amp, it was a hotel and we got dispatched to install a new circuit for some pool equipment, a 200 amp breaker and we had to fit it in a spot that was sized for 200 amp breaker. But inside that space there’s a GE piece of equipment. They coat the bus bar in tape you know from the factory so spent a lot of time meticulously cutting that tape off while it was hot with no gear on because I’d done it before successfully and uh and I got through that process but I did call my boss to say “man this is pretty precarious here you know we might want to shut it off” and he didn’t encourage me to shut it off. So, you know as a boss now also working as a project manager now I encourage my guys to shut it off.

So, fourth section, uh it’s 208 uh which really kind of squashes the industry-wide misconception that you can’t have an arc flash of any substantial value in 208. So this was not even in the main section it was in a branch section. 2500 amp sections you know, 2500 amp gear, transformer was really close, uh 500 kva transformer. Anyways a four-section piece of GE gear, pretty standard in the industry lots of people use that um so 2500 amp main plus a bunch of branch sections three branch sections. I needed to install a 208 breaker in one spot so on that specific spot I just took the above on it and below pieces of dead front off instead of removing the whole dead front because i thought that would be safer. I mean it turns out it was a good decision it probably saved my life. As you can see in the pictures, you know a lot of the heat rolled up and that acted as a shield. There’s no doubt it would have you know burned my face off at that point but yeah I mean it’s just a standard thing that most guys do. They’ll take a box out of a you know, a breaker out of a box you know they’ll inspect it and turn it on and off a couple of times and then they’ll go you know fitting it in the gear and they’ll stick in that driver and bolt the thing in and they’ll do it hot and they do it every single day and 99% of the time they’re successful at it.

So, the second the arc flash happened I knew what was going on just because I mean it’s you know like most electricians that have been in the field for a long time have YouTubed arc flash, have seen all the nasty videos of all the arc flash events they can possibly see. Usually, some guys can’t do it but uh and so I’d been deep in fp70. I understood it, you know I knew better than doing what I was doing.

But anyway, to get back to it, so I knew what was going on, the arc flash was happening and I could feel it and as soon as the noise stopped because i can just you know describe it as just noise because it’s just you know an explosion, it’s going on. It’s just a millisecond but as I said before you slow down as soon as the noise stopped all the lights were out and the room is filled with smoke and I couldn’t see.

The very first thought was “am I on fire?” because I’d seen so many different videos from different vendors uh from you know arc fault or arc flash clothing you know arc rated workwear, where they show this kind of workwear and the mannequins on fire head to toe. So that’s the very first thought was “oh my god am I on fire” so you know just started you know kind of the vertical drop and roll type thing and then I saw a door a light crack open because somebody from the hotel management opened the door because they heard what was going on. The fire alarms are all going off and once I saw that, I was able to exit the room and then kind of gather my thoughts and see and then you know look at my hands and there was a bathroom I wanted to see what my face looked like and I just kind of assessed the damage. I’m not a real panicky guy, I don’t flip out with accidents and stuff uh I’m sure there was a level of shock of course.

Honestly, I thought after the accident I go yeah that’s pretty bad i was looking at my hands but I thought ‘a couple months’ you know I never thought I’d need skin grafts and be in a coma and sick and ICU for two weeks and off work for seven months. I never in a million years would have thought that.

The thing with burns is the first- and second-degree burns hurt and third-degree burns don’t. They burn your nerves you know and so my hands, there’s parts of my hands that hurt, they’re real tight because the burn just shrinks everything up. Uh my face was real tight and it was a little painful but it was 40 out so it was pretty cool and so it felt you know okay.

And then you see on the video man I started making calls. I called my boss you know and said ‘you need to get out here now! I blew this up it’s really bad I’m injured you know you gotta mobilize, get somebody here it’s bad’ and uh and I’m sure there was a level of panic in my voice to him because he recounts later that you know it was pretty panicked.

Uh then tried to call my wife, you know, couldn’t get a hold of her. I call her mom, say look I’m on my way to the hospital I got burnt pretty bad I’m going to KU Med so then as you saw the fire department worked on me there and carted me off you know to the hospital. Really the last thing I remember at the hospital was triage it was them just cutting clothes off, you know getting IVs set, cutting that ring off and then it’s gone. That’s it they put me out they know gave me something I was out and then that’s when they de-breed you and you always hear the stories where they oh you’re wide awake and they’re scrubbing you. That wasn’t my experience they put me out. Uh my expectation is they would put anybody out, but I’ve heard stories where they don’t uh so they de-breed which means they wire brush and you know scratch all the dead skin that they can get off. You know face, they shave your head they put me in a room, they put me in a coma for two, three, four days, something like that. I do remember coming to, it was probably two or three days somewhere at the end of that period.

The stories that you won’t hear from most arc flash guys are like the PTSD stories or the ‘I’m at a hospital bed and it’s a nurse change and there’s nobody around and I’ve got a 105-degree temp and I’m about to crap on myself and there’s nobody around to help me and you’re just like ‘hey’ there’s no button. And you’re like ‘hey’ you know and you crap on yourself.

Those are the stories you don’t hear about when guys aren’t in the hospital beds. It’s the stories you can’t work in that field anymore it’s these kinds of things and we talk about that later. But anyway, so yeah, I remember kind of coming to, had a bad fever uh infection is almost 100 guaranteed with burns because it’s just an open organ essentially. It’s open sores uh so you catch stuff. Especially guys that jump into ponds or stop drop and roll in the dirt you know whatever. So that hospital stay was largely just me being high on you know painkillers and getting a feeding tube as they don’t want you eating so they’re just feeding tube you and uh IV your liquids and you’ve got a tube stuck in your you know what and you’re peeing in a bag and it’s pretty uncomfortable.

And after a couple weeks you know, you’re ready. They got me into, I’m gonna say I had surgery I think on the fourth or fifth day because they go and the skin starts dying so they have to go pretty quickly and make that skin fresh cut it off your legs and stick that new one on there and staple it on.

Then they put you in and they were trying some new things, put my hands in bandages like this so that it would stretch and so you’re in there for days like that. But probably day six they unbandage me and I’ve got pictures of that you know that was the day they unbandaged me. And uh almost immediately they start getting you into therapy and also trimming excess skin that’s not sticking so every day you’re in there they’re snipping pieces of skin off that are tags that are hanging up that aren’t attaching or they didn’t attach. It’s still raw too so every day was that and then you know I could move my hands like this you know when I first got you know even after having this they just open and I couldn’t you know couldn’t bend. Real swollen you know that kind of stuff so uh recovery in the hospital was you know slight because the real work is for months after that you know. One thing I can tell you too is they use a yellow uh Vaseline covered kind of a canvas, uh Baxter band I think maybe is the name of it, but unfortunately my skin grew into it as they had that on there so part of my worst memories in there’s sitting under a sink and having to tear this off of a burnt hand.

It was stuck in my skin and it healed in there already and I just, oh my god it’s one of the worst. It’s probably my worst memory in there is dealing with that.

So, another thing uh that’s probably my most vivid memory of being in the hospital secondly is having to have nurses come in and wipe your butt. Your hands are, you can’t you can’t even take care of yourself you’re in there you can’t take a leak on your own you know. When they finally did pull a catheter out which again is another memorable moment uh that’s brutal. That is brutal.

So, you know there was just, starting from the hospital out you know there was trying to button shirts and put pants on and you can’t drive and you’re stuck at home and you know you’re pretty much a burden. And again, this is just 14% man. This is hands and face this isn’t arms this isn’t legs I mean my legs hurt uh you know from the graft site that was super painful but not permanent but super painful. Like I can’t even, it was worse on my hands just the graph sites so it’s 14% you know.

I got a fat head so I’m not sure how much of it was here opposed to here but you know it stops at the wrist right here on each side just past my watch and then face. Now face I didn’t get a, it largely was not third degree, I was largely just a deep second and with little spots you know of stuff where my hands were totally smoked. I mean second degree burns on my palms and then third on the back. You know the required skin grafts throughout my entire back of my hands, it’s pretty intense I wouldn’t recommend it you know. I went right back to doing what I was doing you know. It didn’t scare me out of the field.

Some guys aren’t that lucky you know. They you know they can they can lose a lot. Some of the things I tell people is you know you don’t expect the you know getting your butt wiped by nurses you know or helping people dress you. But like me, I had a wife, two kids – still do you know. When you lose the ability to support your family, as a man and speaking as a man, that’s a killer man it is not just a physical injury, it is a mental and emotional injury as much as anything.

So you can carry PTSD you know with you from explosion injuries uh but man if you can’t go back to work, and you just you’re sitting around you know I mean its depression is a major deal when you were injured and you can’t go back to work. You can’t get away from an arc flash. It’s too fast it’s instant. You get burned. You’re done. Yeah it’s an instant thing. It’s an instant mistake that you can’t, you can’t change.

So I’m Jason Brozen, got arc flashed over 10 years ago and the one point I’d tell you is don’t be me.

Plan your work – work your plan. Follow through with that plan and do not make exceptions on anything when it comes to safety.’

On LinkedIn, Jason said of his experience ‘Recently I have had a lot of exposure to my arc flash story. One thing that is misunderstood is how intense the instant heat is. Here is a picture of my watch that I was wearing. An arc flash only takes a split second to ruin your life and possibly your family’s. Do not take chances. You have the right and responsibility to turn it off. If not for you, do it for your family, your employer, and your customer.’

The watch Jason was wearing when the accident occurred.

PROGARM, THE ARC FLASH SPECIALISTS

Thorne and Derrick distribute a range of LIFESAVING Arc Flash Protective Clothing from ProGARM – the leading UK manufacturer of high quality Flame Resistant & Arc Flash clothing, garments and workwear.

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