"Electrical Problem" caused fire...

[celtic]

Fire chief: Blaze that left 9 homeless caused by electrical problem

An investigation by fire marshals found the cause of the fire as "some sort of an electrical problem in the living room" on the first floor of the left side of the duplex, Dilts said. The exact kind of an electrical problem was still under investigation.

What do you guys think?
- Electrical problem due to bad building wiring
- Electrical problem due to cheap holiday lighting

Would AFCI protection prevented this incident?

 

[480sparky]

Not enough information.

 

[LawnGuyLandSparky]

Once they can rule out open flame (candle) and chemicals (garage or closet) and smoking, the cause is almost ALWAYS electrical. Even if the "electrical problem" was a space heater that ignited a curtian.

 

[sguinn]

In response to Celtic's post, anytime I see something like this in our newspaper or on the news it always seems to have the same tagline attached, "the cause of the fire is still under investigation". But you never hear anything else about it, they just report the fire and that's that. I'm related to a couple of firefighters and have asked them where one would look to find answers to the investigators findings and they didn't know either.

 

[480sparky]

In response to Celtic's post, anytime I see something like this in our newspaper or on the news it always seems to have the same tagline attached, "the cause of the fire is still under investigation". But you never hear anything else about it, they just report the fire and that's that.

Hence the reason so many people are afraid of natural gas and propane.

Common scenario: A house blows off it's foundation and kills 'x' number of people. Pretty obvious it was gas, and it's usually announced in the next days' news.

But it can take months, even years, to determine if the cause was electrical. By then, it's old news and never makes it past the fire marshal's office other than in a report to the insurance industry and the NFPA.

Truth is, I spoke with our state fire marshal years ago about this. He said 17 times more people die from fires caused by electrical faults than from gas.

Seventeen times.

Now, at the time I took my work seriously. But that number really gave me food for thought, and I have never forgotten that number.

I'm related to a couple of firefighters and have asked them where one would look to find answers to the investigators findings and they didn't know either.

Try the fire marshal's office.

 

[zbang]

He said 17 times more people die from fires caused by electrical faults than from gas.

Maybe so, but not entirely meaningful.

In the For What It's Worth department- Natural gas is lighter than air, so it rises fairly quickly, so it's harder to create a flammable or explosive mix. Most firefighters will tell you that they'd rather someone bootleg a natural gas connection than an LP, since propane sinks and the basement/crawlspace explodes. Also, of course, most places have electricity, not all of them have gas.

The more interesting statistic is not deaths per type of fire, but types of fire per total fires, and casualties per type.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

- Electrical problem due to bad building wiring
- Electrical problem due to cheap holiday lighting

Probably not even an electrical cause.
Don

 

[cowboyjwc]

I think all those flames had something to do with the fire.:smile:

The best one I heard was that it was an electrical fire in a building that hadn't had service for two years.

 

[augie47]

another electrical fire

another electrical fire

I think all those flames had something to do with the fire.:smile:

The best one I heard was that it was an electrical fire in a building that hadn't had service for two years.

Had that a few years back. "fire caused by electrical" .Noted to fire investiagtor that residence "drop" was on ground. He stated POCO cut at fire. POCO finally told him had been cut for months. Many weeks later the investiagtion revealed a former renter stacked boxes up at electrical panel and ignited.

 

[mdshunk]

Fires blamed on electrical, whether real or imagined, are good for our business generally. Gets people thinking about the consequences of inadequate or poor quality electrical installations.

 

[480sparky]

Your customers must think different than most of mine.

'Round here, price pretty much rules.

But great to have ya back, Marc!

 

[Rampage_Rick]

Fires blamed on electrical, whether real or imagined, are good for our business generally. Gets people thinking about the consequences of inadequate or poor quality electrical installations.

Vehicular accidents might also be attributable to electrical...

Were it not for those pesky electrons, the vehicles likely wouldn't be moving. :grin:

 

[pfalcon]

... But it can take months, even years, to determine if the cause was electrical. ...

Rather it can take months to give up on the real cause and blame something convenient. Contrary to common presumption, a fire marshall has no particular experience in determining the cause of a fire. His job is to prevent them and put them out. Forensics is not his field. Unless the source is obvious, which means the fire was probably contained to the source, then it is unlikely for the cause to be known. The insurance companies do not like to hear that though.