Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Mike Sokol]

Twin Cities actor blows the whistle on 'unsafe' theater production

http://m.startribune.com/twin-cities-actor-blows-the-whistle-on-unsafe-theater-production/422120013/

Director and theater founder Joseph Stodola had a vision for the “Medea” production that included using a pool of water near electric circuits, according to Benninghofen. The actors saw that feature for the first time at Wednesday’s rehearsal.

Actor Benninghofen, who is a member of the Actors Equity Union, said that he recognized immediate safety risks.

“We knew that there was going to be a water feature but we didn’t know there would be a 30-foot long exposed electric circuit along the drip edge of this pool which had three- to 4,000 gallons of water,” he said Friday.

Benninghofen consulted with union reps, leaders in the field and the fire marshal, then finally blew the whistle on the production.

“Anyone who’s been around the stage for a while knows that electricity and water will always find each other and you lose trust in the producers when there’s such a flagrant safety issue,” he said.

[Tim McCulloch]

I'll see your potential hazard and raise you carnival shock (in my home town):



A toddler is fighting for her life after being hurt at a carnival at Towne West on Friday night, police said.

The 15-month-old girl was playing at about 9 p.m. when she “grabbed onto a couple of the bars” surrounding a carnival ride “and lost consciousness,” Officer Charley Davidson said.

The parents flagged down some off-duty officers who were at the carnival, and the child was rushed to a hospital for treatment.

She remained in critical condition on Saturday afternoon, Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said.

“There was a possibility of some type of electric shock,” Davidson said. “We’re still trying to determine whether that is the cause.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article150407577.html#storylink=cpy

Ya think?  Maybe we need the Physics Police!  Calling Officer Einstein...

[Mike Sokol]

I'll see your potential hazard and raise you carnival shock (in my home town):

That's so sad. And this points out the primary reason that all metallic objects around anything with AC power should be bonded to the common Ground-Neutral bonding point. Something as simple as a frayed extension cord laying across bike rack barrier can energize it to 120-volts. Of course, that's why SOOW cable is required for these types of connections. As far as "determining the cause", most electricians are poorly equipped to troubleshoot these types of failures. And carnivals are, by their very nature, temporary wiring situations. So there's not a lot of pressure to shut down the ride until a cause is found. The carnival really doesn't want to be implicated, so chances of finding the actual cause are pretty slim.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

Twin Cities actor blows the whistle on 'unsafe' theater production

http://m.startribune.com/twin-cities-actor-blows-the-whistle-on-unsafe-theater-production/422120013/

Director and theater founder Joseph Stodola had a vision for the “Medea” production that included using a pool of water near electric circuits, according to Benninghofen. The actors saw that feature for the first time at Wednesday’s rehearsal.

Actor Benninghofen, who is a member of the Actors Equity Union, said that he recognized immediate safety risks.

“We knew that there was going to be a water feature but we didn’t know there would be a 30-foot long exposed electric circuit along the drip edge of this pool which had three- to 4,000 gallons of water,” he said Friday.

Benninghofen consulted with union reps, leaders in the field and the fire marshal, then finally blew the whistle on the production.

“Anyone who’s been around the stage for a while knows that electricity and water will always find each other and you lose trust in the producers when there’s such a flagrant safety issue,” he said.

It seems to me there must be more to the story than an extension cord by the pool to cause a permanent shutdown. If it was that simple, they could have moved it or changed whatever the cord did.

[Mike Sokol]

It seems to me there must be more to the story than an extension cord by the pool to cause a permanent shutdown. If it was that simple, they could have moved it or changed whatever the cord did.

Apparently this producer has a history of running out of money mid-run, so maybe he was looking for an excuse to "pull the plug".

[Andrew Broughton]

"Police Chief Gordon Ramsay"??
Was he investigating an issue with some under-cooked chicken in Catering?

[Tim McCulloch]

I'll see your potential hazard and raise you carnival shock (in my home town):



A toddler is fighting for her life after being hurt at a carnival at Towne West on Friday night, police said.

The 15-month-old girl was playing at about 9 p.m. when she “grabbed onto a couple of the bars” surrounding a carnival ride “and lost consciousness,” Officer Charley Davidson said.

The parents flagged down some off-duty officers who were at the carnival, and the child was rushed to a hospital for treatment.

She remained in critical condition on Saturday afternoon, Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said.

“There was a possibility of some type of electric shock,” Davidson said. “We’re still trying to determine whether that is the cause.”

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article150407577.html#storylink=cpy

Ya think?  Maybe we need the Physics Police!  Calling Officer Einstein...

Update.  The victim has passed away.

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article151506177.html

[Tim McCulloch]

Now the "experts" weigh in.

I take exception to the characterization of "290V. being an odd voltage."  It's one leg of a 480V 3 phase service (277V) running a little over due to load or the genny is set a little high, possibly to compensate for voltage drop over the feeder run.

Linky:  http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article151752007.html

[Stephen Swaffer]

Now the "experts" weigh in.

I take exception to the characterization of "290V. being an odd voltage."  It's one leg of a 480V 3 phase service (277V) running a little over due to load or the genny is set a little high, possibly to compensate for voltage drop over the feeder run.

Linky:  http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article151752007.html

It seems like he is focusing on a cut wire and possibly lighting-all well and good.  However, if the existing NEC requirements (as we have discussed in other threads here) were followed in that everything metallic that could become energized were bonded to a common grounding electrode then as soon as anything energized touched that fence a breaker would have tripped somewhere.  If the ground you are standing on and a fence are at the same potential you cannot get electrocuted-that is the purpose of bonding and the grounding electrode.

People ignore that and some tend to think that those that are sticklers are "stick-in-the-muds"-but everytime a breaker trips instead of energizing something is a potential life saved.  I've personally worked through many scenarios like that-they never make the news because nothing really bad happened.

Keep this in mind next time you don't have 15 minutes to properly bond and ground at a gig.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

There's more info in this thread:

https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/twin-cities-actor-blows-the-whistle-on-unsafe-theater-production.42084/

The short version is that people were already pissed off, and this was the final straw.

[ProSoundWeb Community]