donmorgan had written this in response to
http://www.thestuccocompany.com/main...rd-395627-.htm
:
Working on a live circuit can be dangerous. If you do indeed have power to
the switches and can confirm this the problem could be that the switches
are electronic and not mechanical. They probably are electronic if they
are dimmers. Meaning that they use transistors or integrated circuits to
function. If you caused a surge by shorting them out you could have
damaged the circuitry. The only one affected should be the one that was
surged. In a three way configuration the switches work together to pass
the power between each other and on to the light. If one goes bad this can
stop the flow back and forth between the switches and the light fixture.