Got a call at the FD today for "Wires burning in the wall".
After we all show up, we go downstatirs to the laundry room, and the occupant tells us that there was "a big spark, and then a lot of smoke" and points to a 1900 mounted on the concrete wall, with one piece of 1/2" EMT entering from the side (9 o'clock) and another exiting the top (12 o'clock). There's a horizontal mount GFCI receptacle, with a slightly smaller than dime sized scorch mark under the test/reset buttons. Using the thermal imager (cool toy!) we see the conduit and breakers are cold...well, at least room temp.
After we kill the circuit, I get a closer look at the cover - it's a raised type (exposed work) cover, but...there are no mounting holes for a receptacle. Just the face of the GFCI sticking through.
After I remove the cover, you can see about 1 1/2" of cruchy melted Cu and insulation, and the loose GFCI wobbling on it's 12's. No mounting at all. Looks like the occupant happened to pull on the washer's cord, which grounded out the neutral against the box. ZAP....Poof!
The cover? Looks like somebody used a saber saw to cut a GFCI sized opening in a raised cover of some sort. Y'know, I guess that $1.85 would've pushed the project over budget! Yeesh.
