Gurrenteed
New Member
Hi. I’ve googled trying to find the answer to this but the more I search, the less confident I get.
I am hoping that someone can help me answer a question. I live in the US - specifically Kansas - and I am a firefighter by trade. I’m fairly certain that there’s an answer for this in the NEC, but I can’t find it.
Recently, we had an apartment fire that involved some appliances. One of the fireground tasks is to secure utilities - or DC power to the involved occupancy. Most of the time this is simply flipping the main breaker at the circuit panel. Sometimes, there is no “main” on the panel (which I’d assume technically makes it a sub-panel?) and we have to switch everything in the panel to the off position. Either way, we always have to pay very close attention to the position of the breakers as found because this needs to be clearly communicated to the fire investigator. On this particular fire, the smoke was thick enough that I had to go into an adjacent apartment to figure out the layout and location of the electrical panel so I could find it in the fire apartment. It ended up being in the back wall of a kitchen pantry with no “main” on the panel. After finding it, I saw all breakers “on” except for two that appeared to have tripped - a 240 circuit and 120 circuit. They were the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th space on the right column. Smoke staining and visibility prevented me from reading any labels or numbers. I turned off the other breakers and left these in the tripped position as an additional form of evidence for the investigator. I have very limited knowledge of electrical code, but I have always assumed that the left column is odd and the right column is even, but now I’m wondering if this is even a standard or if it’s just how most electricians in my area do this?
When I reported this to the investigator, I described the location of the tripped breakers: right column - 240V in the 2nd/3rd space and a 120V in the 4th space. I also referred to the breakers as number 4, 6, and 8 during our discussion, which I’m now wondering if I was wrong for assuming it was labeled this way since I couldn’t actually see the labels. After considering that I couldn’t actually see the labels, I found the investigator on scene and clarified my report on the findings so there wouldn’t be any confusion.
Since this fire I’ve been curious... I have asked a few fire investigators but I’ve had some conflicting answers on this. Anyone know the answer? Thanks.
I am hoping that someone can help me answer a question. I live in the US - specifically Kansas - and I am a firefighter by trade. I’m fairly certain that there’s an answer for this in the NEC, but I can’t find it.
Recently, we had an apartment fire that involved some appliances. One of the fireground tasks is to secure utilities - or DC power to the involved occupancy. Most of the time this is simply flipping the main breaker at the circuit panel. Sometimes, there is no “main” on the panel (which I’d assume technically makes it a sub-panel?) and we have to switch everything in the panel to the off position. Either way, we always have to pay very close attention to the position of the breakers as found because this needs to be clearly communicated to the fire investigator. On this particular fire, the smoke was thick enough that I had to go into an adjacent apartment to figure out the layout and location of the electrical panel so I could find it in the fire apartment. It ended up being in the back wall of a kitchen pantry with no “main” on the panel. After finding it, I saw all breakers “on” except for two that appeared to have tripped - a 240 circuit and 120 circuit. They were the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th space on the right column. Smoke staining and visibility prevented me from reading any labels or numbers. I turned off the other breakers and left these in the tripped position as an additional form of evidence for the investigator. I have very limited knowledge of electrical code, but I have always assumed that the left column is odd and the right column is even, but now I’m wondering if this is even a standard or if it’s just how most electricians in my area do this?
When I reported this to the investigator, I described the location of the tripped breakers: right column - 240V in the 2nd/3rd space and a 120V in the 4th space. I also referred to the breakers as number 4, 6, and 8 during our discussion, which I’m now wondering if I was wrong for assuming it was labeled this way since I couldn’t actually see the labels. After considering that I couldn’t actually see the labels, I found the investigator on scene and clarified my report on the findings so there wouldn’t be any confusion.
Since this fire I’ve been curious... I have asked a few fire investigators but I’ve had some conflicting answers on this. Anyone know the answer? Thanks.
