In message , Steve Nosko
writes

SO... He reaches around the end...grabs some line cord and proceeds to cut
off a piece with scissors...

Blam! ... notched scissors!

On a vaguely similar line my father was rewiring an outside building and
carefully removed all the fuses from the fuse box before cutting out all
the old cabling. He then came across a cable he had forgotten and cut
this too, BANG!! It was the input to the fuse box. One very badly melted
pair of cutters and a rather startled father.
--
Bill