They are just plain stupid, you can't see what you are welding without a shield, I can guarantee that they were some hurtin puppies that night. Heck, for all we know they may be blind by now, and the jerks did it to themselves, sorry but I have no sympathy for them. Years ago I used to fabricate tanks for the plating industry and we used 7024 welding rod or as we called it Jet Rod it was an easy rod to run, after you had used it for a while you could just start the arc and drag it and if you were good you didn't have to look at it and you got a nice looking weld. It's only draw back was you could only weld with it in the flat position. I'm sorry, there I go again on my high horse, I guess I'm just a miserable old bastard, whose getting ready to retire and dreading it.