Nothing like the smell of overheated electrics to give one a start.
Some years back, I visited a client in the Sunset-Vine Tower in Hollywood. Upon boarding the elevator, the smell of hot switchgear just about knocked me out.
A few years later, the building suffered total power loss as the switchgear let go and set thier main transformer on fire. After attempting a patch-bodge job on the switchgear and replacing the transformer, they powered it up again. Result? Another transformer explosion, this time taking out two square blocks of other customers.
The place was abandoned for several years until the entire electrical system was replaced.
I almost felt sorry for the poor fools who had to clean out the refrigerators and freezers of the restaurant on the top floor (After sitting with no power for almost a year!)
