If you enter an equipment closet or transformer vault and find file boxes and fluorescent lamps stored in there, what do you do? You could try to work around them, but that would be dangerous. Therefore, you move them out of the way, right?
When you're done with the job, do you put those items back where they were so as not to antagonize anyone? Yes, if you want to perpetuate an unsafe condition and be complicit in making it exist.
Although it's obvious that storing explosive and/or flammable items near a transformer or panel is dangerous, it gets done anyhow. So, you can't appeal to logic in this case. You can, however, appeal to authority, whether you work for the facility's own maintenance department or are a contractor.
Leave a note with the removed items stating they have been removed from the electrical room because their presence in that room violates:
- The facility's insurance agreement.
- OSHA 1926.403.
- NFPA 70 110.26(B).
Consider having this information preprinted on tags that can be affixed to each removed item.
