We just had a similar incident. We got called for "fire coming out of a box".
We showed up and found a light haze and definite smell of a fire. Didn't see any fire in any of the vents, so we went downstairs, and found the 1st floor burning near a bx run that was hidden behind a vent pipe. Luckily the resident was home and we caught it before it caught everything.
After it was out, we looked at the room. Seems they removed the wall that used to define the closet in an attempt to lengthen the room, as evidenced by the missing flooring that had been concealed by the carpeting. Well, what do we normally put into walls longer than 24"?
Yep... turns out when they dropped the wall, they just cut 7 taped the wires and stuffed the BX down in to the gap left by the sole plate. It was fine for many years until wear and tear caught up with it.
The sad thing? the BX originated from an octagon box about 18" away from the floor penetration... and it was the only branch off that circuit. They could have d/c'd it at the box with almost no effort, and no interruption of anything else.
Last edited by DougW; 02/18/08 05:11 PM.
