Electricity and Fire

[pierre]

I know this topic has been discussed before, but a news program really has me irked.
There have been a small rash of bad fires in the last two weeks, and of course they mention how they are electrically involved, when some are due to a cord or piece of equipment.
But yesterday there was a big fire that destroyed a large old building (this building is unoccupied, slated for demo and has NO ELECTRICITY connected to it). The news team still mentions that the fire was suspected to be electrical,until they found out there was no power to the building.

I say the news should report that millions and millions of buildings and houses have been successfully wired and are completely safe. How about it news people?

Pierre

[ September 23, 2003, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: pierre ]

 

[Guest]

Re: Electricity and Fire

For the past several decades I can think of only two causes of fires as reported on the news:

1. Electrical.
2. Suspected arson.

There is rarely a news follow-up story to apprised us of the findings.

Based on my experience I still suspect a lot are indeed electrically related.

I do remember one case recently where somebody was barbecuing a whole pig in his garage because it was raining outside and it ignited his detached garage. And there are the brush fires caused by lightning (hey, that's electrical too!). In urban areas it's mostly blamed on electricity.

PS: I rewired a pretty big furniture store once. The existing wiring was horrendously dangerous, and the owner wanted a couple of new circuits. It was a lot of work and I tried to clean it up as best I could. One day near the end of my work the whole building burned down. I assumed the worst-- that it was electrical. Turns out the owner burned it down for insurance. Whew! That time I was thankful for arson. My client was his tenant. My client lost everything-- he had already opened the store.

[ September 23, 2003, 02:50 PM: Message edited by: awwt ]

 

[pierre]

Re: Electricity and Fire

I have spoken to the fire chief here and he said the number one cause of house fires is candles, the number two is smoking in bed.

Pierre

 

[bill addiss]

Re: Electricity and Fire

Pierre,

I have a somewhat similar peeve. When an injury or damage occurs as a result of an Electrical wiring problem I'd like them to report who did the wiring if that is known. (EC, Handyman, Owner, etc). It would lay the blame where it really belongs and greatly increase the value of statistics in my opinion.

Bill

 

[websparky]

Re: Electricity and Fire

From NFPA 2003 Statistics;

Cooking

More fires start in the kitchen than in any other place in the home.
Cooking fires are the #1 cause of home fires and home fire injuries.
Unattended cooking is the leading cause of home cooking fires.

Electrical

Electrical fires and shocks kill hundreds of people and injure thousands each year.
In 1999, electrical distribution equipment was the fourth leading cause of home structure fires, but ranked first in cause of direct property damage.

Home escape planning

According to an NFPA survey, 26 percent of Americans said they had never thought about practicing a home fire escape plan. Three percent said they didn't believe that practice was necessary.

[ September 24, 2003, 12:15 AM: Message edited by: websparky ]

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Re: Electricity and Fire

Dave,
The problem with all of the available fire cause statistics is that very very?few fires are ever investigated by anyone with any real electrical background. Most are investigated by the local fire officer and he has to put something on the report. If there is any type of electrical equipment anywhere near the point of origin the cause will be listed as electrical.
Don

 

[william runkle]

Re: Electricity and Fire

Any fire is bad. But so far I had only one scare. Years ago I made a service upgrade on a single family residence, then a few years later I was working where there was a scanner on and heard that a fire started at the residence and needed more fire trucks. My curiosity picked it up and I went to check on it, found out someone was deep-frying and the grease caught the curtains on fire. What a relief!

 

[racraft]

Re: Electricity and Fire

Perhaps where some of you are a fire investigation is done locally. However, where I am they are done by the county. Our county has a very well trained and extremely competent team whose only job is to determine the cause and origin of fires.

Remember also that an electrical fire is usually not the fault of the original installer. More times than not the homeowner is at fault for overloading a circuit and/or using a defective or inappropriate extension cord, oversizing a fuse, etc.

Electrical fires not caused by the homeowner may be caused by defective electrical equipment (lights, applicaces, etc.). They may also be caused by worn out or defective electrical equipment (bad breakers, brittle wire, etc.).

My own experience (as a volunteer firefighter) has been that very few fires are caused by installation mistakes, whether done by the homeowner, a general contractor, or by an electrician.