This happened in the Cleveland area yesterday….
Garage door electrocutes Geauga boy <!—-> <!—->
<!—-><!—->Thursday, June 30, 2005<!—-> <!—->
John Horton <!—->
Plain Dealer Reporter <!—->
<!—-><!—->Chester <!—-> <!—->Township <!—-><!—-> – Six-year-old Lucas Joseph Reichert touched his family’s garage door and died Wednesday, a victim of electricity. <!—->
It appears that faulty wiring in the outlet that powered the home’s garage door opener is to blame for the electrocution, said Capt. Mark Purchase of the Chester Township Police Department. The malfunction sent a current of electricity flowing into the steel garage door. <!—->
After the accident, investigators measured the door carrying 109 volts of electricity, Purchase said. That’s roughly equivalent to the full service voltage flowing into the <!—-> <!—->Geauga <!—-> <!—->County <!—-><!—-> home. <!—->
<!—-> <!—->
<!—-><!—-><!—-> <!—-><!—-><!—-><!—-> <!—-><!—-><!—-><!—-> <!—-><!—-><!—-><!—-> <!—-><!—-><!—-> <!—-><!—-> <!—-><!—-><!—->In essence, touching the door was akin to touching a bare power line. <!—->
Lucas was standing barefoot on the garage’s cement floor when he touched the door, sending electricity coursing through his body. Police and rescue officials were called to the family’s <!—-><!—->Oak Hill Drive <!—-><!—-> home at <!—->9:47 a.m. <!—-> Lucas died about an hour later at <!—-> <!—->Hillcrest <!—-> <!—->Hospital <!—-><!—-> in <!—-><!—->Mayfield Heights<!—-><!—->. <!—->
Lucas’ parents, Scott and Ingrid Reichert, have decided to donate Lucas’ organs “to benefit other children,” according to a statement released by the hospital. <!—->
Lucas attended kindergarten at St. Anselm Elementary in <!—-><!—->Chester <!—-> <!—->Township <!—-><!—-> last school year, officials said. <!—->
The death remains under investigation, Purchase said. <!—->
<!—-> <!—->
“Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words.” – St. Francis of Assisi
Replies
Horrible.
how in the Hell could that door opener be pulling the full service charge?!
jt8
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. -- Sir Winston Churchill
I have no idea. It seems very strange.
On the news, they reported that other older siblings in that family had felt shocks when touching the garage door from time to time, but didn't think much of it.
"Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." - St. Francis of Assisi
I've seen garage door openers on 99cent extension cords... can't imagine how they've got this one wired. Just horrible situation.
jt8
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. -- Sir Winston Churchill
A no ground on the receptacle. Either never installed or broken by viabration.B a fault in the opener or the power cable rubbing against the frame of the opener and exposing the hot lead.Now, we don't have any idea of how old the house and wiring is and how long the opener has been there.Lots of potential causes starting with a mis-wired receptacle.
Improperly wired sub panel maybe? Just a thought. It's one of those things I see done wrong in garages and outbuilding the most.
We are all in this together.
http://www.hay98.com/
For something like a misswire sub-panel it would have to have multi-ple faults. One that would do it would be one without a separate ground and then losing the neutral.But reading that they "fixed" it before leaving makes me thing that it was something much simpler. Although "fixing it" might have been to just cut the power off.I am thinking some thing simpler such as an extension cord that was wrapped around the end of a rail to keep it in place.Or romex sticking out of the ceiling with a dangling box on it.
"how in the Hell could that door opener be pulling the full service charge?!"
The only thing I could come up with was that the hot wire was hooked to the ground screw in the outlet. With a metal case, a metal track, and a metal door that would make a complete circuit.
I wonder who wired it?
The job of the military is to go to war and win, not to be the instruments of social experimentation. [General Norman Schwartzkopf]
That is horrible. The other day I yelled at my 3 year old son for running to grab the garage door as it was opening. I was more concerned that a freak accident could send the door falling down on him. It never occured that an electrical shock could be a danger as well.
I have mine plugged into a nearby outlet. I'm thinking since it's sometimes damp in the garage, I should make it a gfci. I wonder if I'll get false tripping of the gfci.
Better to just add a separate ground wire to the rails.
Dan has the best idea. If there had been a ground wire from the door's tracks to the electrical system ground, any breaker, GFCI or regular, would have tripped the instant a hot somewhere came in contact with the door hardware. This sort of thing is why I'm running ground wires to my copper roof.
-- J.S.
what if the hot and neytral were reversed in the ourlet?
would that cause this problem?caulking is not a piece of trim
No, but reversing hot and ground would cause the problem. The opener wouldn't work that way, though.
-- J.S.
No the opener would still work with hot and neutral reversed.And that would not cause the prolbem either. There would have to be a secondard problem for it to cause the electrocution.But reversing hot and neutral might make for an interesting time when the light was changed.
It's reversing hot and ground. The sheet metal goes hot, the motor sees neutral and ground, so it doesn't run.
-- J.S.
My father (sparky) and I always made garage circuits GFCI-protected when wiring new houses. I'm not sure but I think that it is a code requirement. As I remember it, anything within 6' of a sink, "all" outlets in a bathroom, anything within 2' of the floor in a garage... Something like that.
Anyway, I've found it easier to install GFCI breakers as opposed to retrofitting large outlets into (small) existing boxes. Plus, you protect everything on the circuit. May cost a few dollars more this way.
"My father (sparky) and I always made garage circuits GFCI-protected when wiring new houses. I'm not sure but I think that it is a code requirement. As I remember it, anything within 6' of a sink, "all" outlets in a bathroom, anything within 2' of the floor in a garage... Something like that."No.All receptacles that serve kitchen counter tops, regardless of how close they are to a sink.All receptacles (and not all outlets unless speced by the manufacture for that application) in bathrooms.All in unfinsihed basement **All in garage **Outdoors and crawlspaces. Outbuildings.** First only 120 volt receptacles are included. So ones are not needed 240 for tools.And only those are redially acceessiable need to be protected (not for garage door openers).And there are exclusions for equipment that is normally not moved. That exception covers freezers, refigerators, and sump pumps. You don't want those on GFCI protection as the change of false trips and more damage is too high. And that is one of the problems with automatically installing GFCI breakers every where. BTW, I had just searched for the story to see if there had been any updates as to the cause.Did find this."Personnel from the Geauga County Building Department gave a preliminary ruling that the incident was accidental, due to faulty wiring in the garage.The residence was made safe prior to the police department's release of the scene, according to the police report. "
Thanks Bill. Can always count on you for a complete answer.
I really just wanted to encourage thang to GFCI protect the garage outlets. Probably should have made that more clear. As I recall, though, we did not protect the openers in new construction; we always put outlets in close proximity (i.e. on the ceiling) - where the openers would be the only things that would use them.
Might be a good place for AFCI's?
AFCI's would not do any good in this case.While they do have a GFCI funtion it allows too high of a current for personal protection. It is designed to sense deteriating wiring, not prevent shocks.I am not conviced of the value of AFCI's. They won't do much good for modern wiring and aren't in the 50-75 YO houses where they might do some good.And there is no reason to suspect that devices will work in 50-75 years when the condition of the wiring is suspect.Likewise I am fan of using GFCI's to try and "fix" bad wiring.We have no idea of what the age of the house or what the problem was that caused this.
No accident -- some bozo royally miswired things in order for that to happen.
But it does suggest that a metal garage door should have its own connection to the building "grounding system". Probably is code, in theory, since any large metal expanse is supposed to be grounded.
While installing door hardware in Dallas I came across a "hot" door.
I was running door hardware on a new construction job for a company that ran a bunch of computer servers and I was in a small room putting a lockset on a steel door. There was another steel door about seven feet farther in the little room and as I was sitting on my 5 gallon bucket fiddling with the lock I noticed "scorch" marks on the other door. I looked up a little higher on that other door and noticed the top of the door had been swinging against an electrical lead coming off of a conduit, and the door had evidently knocked of the plastic caps.
The open wires were in contact with the door. I used my little "hot stick" I always keep in my tool pouch and touched it to the door and it lit up. I got someone to watch the door and got an electrician to check it out.
Turns out it was 220v running into that door.
Life's a bitch and then you die! Terrible about the little boy.
Cork in Chicago