Temporary lights and cords are still wiring

The temp lights are clipped to the studs. The cords run across the slab to the saw. It looks like a shortcut that comes down next week. It is still wiring. The jacket on that cord is all that stands between the copper and a hand, a puddle, or a pile of shavings. A box with the cover off leaves screws and bare parts where a shoulder brushes by. A bulb with no guard can break. Hot glass and a live base then sit in whatever is underneath. Treat this string of lights the way you treat the lights that stay in the building.

Keep the covers on the boxes. Do not hang a cord on a nail, a staple, or a piece of tie wire. Those cut the jacket. Do not run a cord where a door will close on it, where a scaffold wheel will roll over it, or where a vehicle will drive across it. If the cord has to pass a doorway, route it so the door and the traffic do not chew it. Look at each lamp. If the bulb guard is broken, cracked, or missing, replace the guard before that light is used. Keep temporary lights away from wet wood shavings and away from anything that can burn. A lamp in a pile of shavings is a fire waiting on a hot bulb.

Before we use the temp power today, walk the cords. If someone hung one on a nail, take it off. Move any cord out of the door swing, out from under the scaffold wheels, and out of the truck path. Close any box that is sitting open. If a guard is bent or gone, replace it or take that lamp down until we have a guard. Pull lights back from the shavings, the cardboard, and the scrap that will burn. If a cord is cut, taped into a wad, or warm at the plug, take it out of service and tell the foreman. Do not add more tape and call a cut cord fixed.