Damaged Extension Cords Cause Shocks, Fires, and Falls

Catch the frayed cord before it energizes the job

Flexible extension cords are the most common source of electrical trouble on a job site because they take the most abuse. A cord with a missing ground pin, cut insulation, or a spliced repair can shock a worker, ignite a fire, or trip a passing crew. OSHA Scan analyzes job-site photos to flag damaged, overloaded, and improperly routed extension cords before they become the cause of an injury.

• An extension cord hazard is any use of a flexible cord that is damaged, overloaded, misapplied, or routed in a way that creates a shock, fire, or tripping risk. It shows up as a cord with cracked or cut insulation, a missing or bent ground prong, a taped splice, or a light-duty household cord powering heavy tools far beyond its rating.
• In practice, these hazards appear when cords are run through doorways and pinched, stapled or nailed to walls, chained together in long daisy chains, or dragged across sharp metal edges. Cords laid across walkways, buried under debris, or run through standing water combine trip, fire, and shock risks at once, and connections left in the open collect moisture and dust.
• The danger is that a cord looks fine until the moment it fails: the ground path is invisible, and a nicked conductor can energize the cord jacket or a tool housing without warning. A cord that overheats inside a coiled bundle can smolder for a long time before igniting, which is why photo-based inspection of cords and their routing matters before power flows.