Pierre C Belarge
Senior Member
- Location
- Westchester County, New York
Yesterday I received a call from one of my last customers while I was still an electrical contractor.
He called to let me know that his building was on fire and the fire chief had told him they already found the cause of the fire - ELECTRICAL. So, like any other contractor who has just been told his work has caused a fire that damaged a multiuse building, I got in my car and calmly drove to the building at 150 MPH.
When I got there, they were just mopping up the fire. There was extensive damage to the building, which is 2 stores on the first floor, and 4 apartments on the second floor.
I met with the owner and the building official, who has a lot of respect for me. He treated me very well and got me permission to enter the building and take pictures. They explained to me what had caused the fire and the progress of the fire. At that time the news woman was trying to interview me and I asked the Building Official if he could get me out the back door, which he gladly did.
I met with the fire marshal who had cut out the portion of the wiring that he determined had started the fire. It was definitely wiring in a location I had worked in and did not look like anyone had added work to the area in the six years since I was there.
The fire marshal put the cable he had removed under lock and key...the BO persuaded him to let me look at it and photograph it, which I did.
I studied the cable and could not see how it was determined that this piece had started the fire. He told me his expertise was better than mine, okay.
Today at 4 pm, the owner of the building called me to let me know the fire investigater from the insurance company had spent 6 hours piecing the fire back together and came up with a positive identification of the cause of the fire...not electrical.
It was caused from a tenant who had emptied an ash tray into a plastic garbage can whch had contained a smoldering cigarette. Case closed, another disaster averted.
Here are two of the pictures of the burnt cable.
He called to let me know that his building was on fire and the fire chief had told him they already found the cause of the fire - ELECTRICAL. So, like any other contractor who has just been told his work has caused a fire that damaged a multiuse building, I got in my car and calmly drove to the building at 150 MPH.
When I got there, they were just mopping up the fire. There was extensive damage to the building, which is 2 stores on the first floor, and 4 apartments on the second floor.
I met with the owner and the building official, who has a lot of respect for me. He treated me very well and got me permission to enter the building and take pictures. They explained to me what had caused the fire and the progress of the fire. At that time the news woman was trying to interview me and I asked the Building Official if he could get me out the back door, which he gladly did.
I met with the fire marshal who had cut out the portion of the wiring that he determined had started the fire. It was definitely wiring in a location I had worked in and did not look like anyone had added work to the area in the six years since I was there.
The fire marshal put the cable he had removed under lock and key...the BO persuaded him to let me look at it and photograph it, which I did.
I studied the cable and could not see how it was determined that this piece had started the fire. He told me his expertise was better than mine, okay.
Today at 4 pm, the owner of the building called me to let me know the fire investigater from the insurance company had spent 6 hours piecing the fire back together and came up with a positive identification of the cause of the fire...not electrical.
It was caused from a tenant who had emptied an ash tray into a plastic garbage can whch had contained a smoldering cigarette. Case closed, another disaster averted.
Here are two of the pictures of the burnt cable.