So, you’ve committed to becoming an electrician: you saved the money, finished your training and schooling, completed your apprenticeship, and now you’re on the path to journeyman status. You probably have a good sense of what to expect, but in the built environment every job is different, and nothing is guaranteed. 

To give you a fuller picture of what you could run into, we went digging on Reddit and pulled together the most striking outliers—the bizarre anecdotes, close calls, and seriously dangerous cautionary tales electricians have shared over the years. So, buckle up, because these 8 stories are curated for insight, some comedy, and a healthy dose of warning. 

Mild Mishaps 

Most often, you’ll likely encounter a grumpy client or a situation that feels like it came straight out of a sitcom. Your job might be challenging, but it isn’t without its laughs, and these stories showcase some of the more lighthearted moments that come with being an electrician. 

From jakey_o on Reddit: Possums in the crawlspace. I was laying on my back stapling homers to the floor joists and that sucker popped out less than a foot from my face and started hissing and growling at me. Scared the living hell out of me. Definitely not the most “dangerous” story, but this was the one that truly scared me the most!  

From Marc J. on Electricians Forum: When we had our house inspected, one of the many things they found was that the swimming pool light didn't work. The previous owners had been there for 5 years and even had the bulb replaced, but still no go. We got them to credit us to have it fixed, plus to upgrade it to GFCI. 
 
Shortly after we moved in, I decided to do take a look. There was no voltage at the box by the pool. traced the wires back to the house by the pool pump, still no voltage. Up a conduit, across the attic, and down a conduit to the switch box. And that's where it ended. It wasn't tied into any circuits. 
 
There were no cut wires, nor did it look like there had ever been a feed for the switch. I still don't understand how it ever came to be that way. 

From INP_ELC on Electrician Forums: About a month ago, I got a call at 11:00pm from a regular customer and it went like this:  

Customer: One of my rental houses has no power, can you come out to look at this? I checked the main breaker, and it was off. I turned it back on and nothing happened. 
 
Me: The whole house is out? 
 
Customer: Yes, I'm standing outside right now at the meter base. (this is a duplex) Both meters are there, but one is not turning at all. 
 
Me: Can I ask, did they pay their electric bill? 
 
Customer: Oh yes! I'm sure they paid the bill. I asked them already! They are great tenants. 
 
Me: Are you still at the meter base? 
 
Customer: Yes, why? 
 
Me: What color are the tags on the unit? 
 
Customer: One of them is blue, and one red. 
 
Me: Yeah, I figured. Tell them to pay the bill. 

The Poop Hot Tub 

From Y_GaryO in Twitter: I was stapling wires in a crawl space and noticed some pooling liquid. I continued to work and then started to notice a terrible smell. I walked out to the back of the house to talk to the other electrician, and he confirmed what I thought. The septic tank was overflowing and leaking back under the house where I had been working (and still had some work to finish) about a foot away from the edge of that pool of toilet mess. The homeowner knew that it was happening but didn’t care and just wanted his new hot tub hooked up. Must have been a relaxing evening sitting in the new tub sipping wine and smelling the pool of human waste 30 feet away. 

Near Misses 

Every job comes with a mixed bag of good and bad days, and that’s no different for electricians. But sometimes, the bad days on the job as a built environment professional can be eye-opening in a pretty scary way. One misstep and you could get really badly injured, so it is vital to exercise caution when on the job. Here are a few examples of things that went badly that could have potentially gone far worse.

The Unintentional Bomb 

From Smoke_Stack707 on Reddit: I was installing a battery bank for an off-grid system with solar. These were Iron Edison batteries so not like car batteries but like “move it with a forklift” batteries. The manufacturer sent us this battery watering kit where you replace all the caps on the top of the cells with a float valve and connect everything with tubing so you can just pump distilled water into the batteries, so they stay topped up. 

We were way out in the middle of nowhere installing two battery banks at different customer’s houses on the same day. Finish up the first one, have lunch and go to the second customer’s house just down the road. Maybe an hour after we get to the second customer’s house, the first customer comes ripping up the driveway on his quad yelling at us. 

His battery bank had exploded. Detonated like a damn bomb. Blew up the whole mechanical shed that housed the batteries with the solar panels on the roof and the inverters and everything inside. Apparently, this battery watering kit was a new item from Iron Edison, and they hadn’t really thought about how the batteries were going to vent through the system. So as soon as the solar kicked in and the charge controller sent them a bunch of juice, they just filled up with gas and blew up. 

We had to call the fire department and get a hazmat team. The scariest part was I had to run back and remove the battery watering kit we had just installed on the second customer’s battery bank as fast as possible before that one blew up too.

The Accident That Saved a Life  

From MyLastUsernameSucked on Reddit: Pulled like 5, 480v 8-/4 MC or something ridiculous runs for HVAC units on the roof. I had pleaded with the framers (who were also doing the drywall) to mark the wall in this specific area like 10'' lane going down a 50-foot wall of 1.5' studs to the other side of the building. These idiots used 1.5" drywall screws because they were out of the 1” screws. Screwed right through 3 of the 5 HVAC runs, so I had to abandon them in the wall and pull new ones through some little chase. 

Anywho, connected the load to the line of these spliced runs. We had another electrician come in to hook up the units on the roof and when it was done, he went to turn them on. Well, he hadn't told me he was firing anything up and the panels were largely empty at this stage. He flips it on. I got the "load" side of the spliced run in the box, and I accidently knocked the coil of the repulled "line" side, and it falls out of the grid ceiling and smacks the metal connector of my A frame ladder and BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM. 

Yup. It blew up on my ladder. The worst part is, I would have grabbed it with my hands like 30 seconds later and wouldn't have had a thought in the world that it was on. It was only the two of us working and I hadn't had any reason to really think they'd be on and test it right before (even if I really should every time). But yeah...freaked me out. The adrenaline when it happened kept me calm and kind of laughing. But afterwards I realized that I for sure would have died without that little accident. Makes you think... Always check for live currents people!  

The Old Ladder 

From AragornFly on Reddit: I worked a job with my dad once and he got shocked while on a ladder. I don’t know how it happened, and he says he can’t remember what he touched. Anyway, the only reason he lived was because the ladder was super rickety and when he got shocked, he leaned back, and the ladder fell backwards, disconnecting him from the shock. Saved by substandard equipment! Hear that, OSHA? (Sunco Disclaimer: please still use the proper OSHA certified equipment) 

The Tragic

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that being an electrician can be incredibly dangerous. It’s not a job where you can let yourself get complacent in any capacity, or else you can risk serious bodily harm and even death. We know that this might be an unpleasant thing to read, so if you’re not interested in reading a sad story, I suggest that you skip this one. The overall message being, you’re working with dangerous equipment, and you need to be careful, no matter how long you’ve been an electrician.

The Reality of Dangerous Jobs  

From SeparateVariation on Twitter: At the steel mill where I worked, some electricians were working on an EOT 250vdc crane and there was a miscommunication that ended someone's life. All but one guy went back to the cab to energize the hot rails. The one guy that got left behind must have thought they were just taking a break. He went to pull himself up and put left hand on one side of the hot rails and his other hand on the opposite side... You can guess what happened next. It was tragic. Please don’t get complacent, no matter how long you’ve been on the job. And always keep a good line of communication open. 

Wrapping Up 

You might not see something like these stories every day, but there’s no guarantee that you won’t encounter something similar on any given jobsite. The moral of these stories? Stay vigilant, never let yourself get complacent on the job, and be prepared for anything! You never know what you’ll see out there.