Actually, my Dad had this happen to him. He was a teen, and running a long
wire antenna in his parents cellar. For some reason, he dropped the wire in
front of electrical socket. It burned about half way through the blades of
the plug before the fuese blew. True story.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

"HeyBub" wrote in message
m...

I've heard that rationalization before. Consider:
* What are the chances a plug is only partially inserted? Further, it's
inserted enough to make contact with the live terminals inside the fixture
but a small amount of the prongs are visible.
* What are the odds that something is dropped where it will hit this
mal-inserted plug.
* Now what are the chances that this dropped something is a) Conductive, and
b) Thin enough to fit in the gap
* Assuming all of the above probabilities come to pass, so what? The
intruding bit of metal will spark and sputter and it will either explode out
of the socket or the breaker will flip.

I suggest, based on the odds, that anything deleterious happening because
the ground plug is beneath the hot/neutral has never happened in the history
of the world.