ken44
Senior Member
- Location
- Austin, TX
I just returned from investigating the cause of a fire that started today (very little damage was done) at a shell building that houses the office space of a local car dealership. I was informed that an employee was spraying the aluminum siding at the top corner and noticed that a nail started smoking, he immediately ripped off the piece of siding with the smoking nail and the owner went inside and ripped the other side of the wall out to ensure there was no fire in there. When I arrived on the scene, I observed two runs of triplex being run to two seperate panels that were located about 20 feet from each other on the same side of the building as where the fire began, these triplex cables were run from the source to these panels underground without any use of conduit and the metal shell of the building was cutting into them at least a little although there was no evidence of a direct short nor did I measure any voltage between any two reference points. The only thing I can think of that might have caused the nail to start smoking is that the triplex cutting into the shell may have energized the shell. Does anyone know of any other possibilities.