electrical fires

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frankgi

Member
Location
South Jersey
charlietuna said:
I once worked for a general contractor who specialized in burnouts--house fire repairs. It was nasty dirty work. But after a while realized how many house fires were blamed on the electrical system without true proof. Of course about 50 percent were kitchen fires and obvious to us that it was started by something left on the stove. When there is any doubt, the fire marshe would blame it on "ELECTRICAL IN NATURE".
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More electricians get bad raps from the failure of male plugs...usually caused by people pulling on the cord instead of the plug. Causes the blade to "shear" (the strands) off (moulded plug) internally, reducing the amount of strands to carry the amperage, causing an overheating condition and then ultimatly a fire (at the receptacle). It is then reported in the paper as "an electrical fire" and if an electrician worked in the building recently, it may be seen as "his fault". :-/
 
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nakulak

Senior Member
Its my belief that there are still more fires "electrical in nature" that are caused by remodeling. I see a lot of siding guys around here using 2" nails when they reside houses - leaves me wondering.

Same for interior remodeling - especially with paslode guns, I see guys shooting 2" and 2 1/2" nails into the wall.

When my sister in laws hardware store burned down a few years ago, the FM found where a nail had penetrated halfway through a wire, and believed that it finally shorted out and caused the fire as it was near the origin.
 
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hurk27

Senior Member
Location
Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
something I have ran across, about a couple months ago lightning knocked a 69k line down on a 7200 which feeds the local area, this sent a surge that lasted about 15 seconds through many houses on this phase, we lost two houses in this and both were because of the way the plug-in strips used for computers with SPDs in them, are set up, the MOV's are ahead of the breaker on them and when exposed to long term over voltage the tend to heat up and can get very hot and melt the ABS plastic case then catching them and anything close by on fire, well whats next to computer desks? paper. I have been trying to get UL to require that the manufacture of these place a one time fuse ahead of the MOVs to prevent this. the fires were originally ruled electrical in cause but after I spoke with the fire marshal we went back to the house and he saw where the strip was right at the center of origin, so he retrieved it to send in but never heard as to what was the results.
 
Sierrasparky

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
Loose wires and heavy continous loads on a 15 amp branch circuit, with back wired receptacles and every hole filled.
 
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