From a local paper:
Firefighters responded to a fire alarm at 136 Lowell St. at 6:19 p.m. last Friday, Sept. 19. On arrival, they saw smoke billowing from the right side of the house. One room on the first floor was completely enflamed, and the flames extended to the second floor as well.

There was heavy smoke throughout the building, and extensive ventilation was performed by the ladder companies, fire reports state.

Engines 1, 2, 3, 7, Tower 1 and ladders 2 and 3 responded to put out the fire.

None of the occupants were home and no one was injured. Building damage is estimated at $150,000.

While the cause of the fire is unknown, Kelleher said "we believe, somehow, the electrical system played some part in it, but the incident is still under investigation."

The owner, who lives in Belmont, and the Fire Investigation Unit were notified. Inspectional Services was called to the site and power cut to the building.

I think the phrase "we believe, somehow, that the electrical system was at fault" could be used synonymously with : "we don't have any idea what happened".

That mentality is on a par with a masonry building that was being remodeled for an anniversary celebration in 1976 that caught fire. The official findings were that the cause of the fire could not be determined, for the building was not wired. Crap…

There was a recent report on local 11:00 news of a wood-framed apartment building under construction that burned very rapidly, and fire investigators ruled the event "highly suspicious" because the power had yet to be turned on by the utility. Double Crap…




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 09-28-2003).]

Hmmm.....

What could be worrying with this mentality as well is that a fire with suspicious origins could use the "It must have been electrical" excuse as a convenient scapegoat to avoid further investigative work.

In such a case, the real culprit might go unpunished.

This is speculation on my part, but it seems likely that unless the case is high profile, an extensive analysis is not conducted. That is, unless there is a high-tier governmental agency {a/k/a hot-air politician} or insurance firm with significant financial burden driving the demand.

And it would seem that the installing electrician is always the handy culprit.

I saw a story about a fire in a bar that was blamed on a faulty receptacle. Several weeks later someone found a tape in the burnt up VCR and found it was actually viewable. When they viewed the tape it was seen that a waitress cleaning up dump some cigarette butts into t rash can under the "defective receptacle'. The trash started to burn. It had nothing to do with the receptacle but since it was in the vicinity of the point of origin they assume the receptacle was the cause.

Strange. Where I live, one can be pretty sure a fire is arson.