We had an arc flash incident a couple of months ago, and thankfully the employee was wearing his PPE, which probably saved his eyes, but still came out with second and third degree burns. The interesting thing is, the jacket continued to burn even after the event, and had to be put out with the PPE jacket of the second employee who was out of range of the blast. My concern is why it kept burning, there is only about 20-30% of the jacket left. My understanding is that it will burn, but will self extinguish. Is it normal to keep burning? The jacket had not been washed since new, and was not contaminated with any flammable liquids or grease. I beleive it has the spray on retardent, not the woven in type. It was bought from a reputable supplier, so we don't think it is counterfeit PPE. (The shirt underneath was our standard issue all cotton)

There is always an ignition risk, Hugh should jump in here as he does all the testing of this stuff. What was the material being used? Can you post a photo of your PPE and label?

We have sent it off to a lab to see what happened, I will see if HR has any pictures I can post. I know that it is the spray on retardent, but I did not catch the manufacture, we have bought from several vendors over the years, but this one came from Grainger. it is 11 cal.

Here is the picture if I can get the file small enough.

The energy level was definitely above 11 cal/cm2 (the rating of the material). This material become quite brittle and will afterflame at about 25-40 cal/cm2. It is a good quality material. I do tons of testing on this and it is the most common fabric on the market.

I'm even more convinced this was a t-shirt ignition.

Do you know the energy level calculated at the fault location?

Looks like this work place needs more protection for this job condition.

Glad to know it's quality material, as far as the t-shirt ignition, I can see that as a possibility. I do not know what the energy level was, this accident happened on the same day I was taking training at Georgia Tech to become safety coordinator. I too have a suspicion that the energy level was higher than what it was rated for. The employee was doing something against company policy when it happened. Now that this has happened, he will probably be the safest employee we have. He definetly learned his lesson the hard way.

Glad to know it's quality material, as far as the t-shirt ignition, I can see that as a possibility. I do not know what the energy level was, this accident happened on the same day I was taking training at Georgia Tech to become safety coordinator. I too have a suspicion that the energy level was higher than what it was rated for. The employee was doing something against company policy when it happened. Now that this has happened, he will probably be the safest employee we have. He definetly learned his lesson the hard way.