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Joined: Jun 2001
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Mike Wescoatt
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Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant
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Joined: May 2003
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Bumpy Bumpy Joe, Now, I have seen some "near" electrical fires, as they don't call ME after a real fire has happened. But, several years ago, a freind of mine had a fire in her apt. and the insurance company tried to pin the blame on her, and her "decrotive" perminent christmas lights. (And NO I don't condone the pratice.) But, I helped her move the rest of her things out, and was also interested to see the damage myself. (Not that I am a Fire Investigator.) But I noticed that the fire had also hit other places in the apartment, and had a hunch on a lost neutral as the real cause. I told her about it, and the insurance company and laywers brought in an indepentand electrician and engineer to evaluate the building systems. And sure enough, LOST NEUTRAL in her apartments sub-panel. Saved my freind from getting sued.... Man, was she happy. (Still "Electrical" caused, but not by her, rather an inproperly torqued neutral. Simular to what I see ALL the Time!)
Anyway, I think that many of the "electrical" caused fires are still mis-tagged, and something should be done about generalizing the cause of these type of fires, rather than true investigations of the cause. I think it not only skews the statisics, but delays study on the solutions as well.
And just because something what-ever it may be caused a fire, it does not mean that it should be allowed to "Spread" like the picture above. It would have been a much smaller fire had it been concrete construction.
Mark Heller
"Well - I oughta....." -Jackie Gleason
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Joined: Jun 2003
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Well, there are the (real) accidental / act-of-God fires, and there are preventable ones. If all the preventable ones were prevented? Most of the full time departments would become volunteer/call shops. Of course, if you look at the numbers, annually fires are decreasing, but EMS calls are rising. It's the only reason some full time depts are still full time.
IIRC, Joe, your asked a similar question some time ago - can't find it in search, it may have been on your site.
For other with an interest, I responded that there were two fires on my FD that were investigated, and determined to be _actual_ electrical (origin) fires, as opposed to "lazy/hurried/untrained investigator checking 'electrical' as a catch-all" fire.
One was a fire near Xmas, where the family (non-owner occupants) had not only done the cord-under-carpet routine, but had swapped out several 15 and 20A fuses with 30's, so they could run space heaters... on the same cords, no doubt.
The second one was during the summer months - a renter had installed a window A/C unit, but the cord (10 or 12 AWG, IIRC) was too short. No problem - he's got wire cutters and an old (16 AWG) extension cord... a little cut and strip, a little twist and tape, and PRESTO! the A/C runs!
(for a while, anyway)
Found the point of origin behind the couch where the cords were spliced.
[This message has been edited by DougW (edited 11-16-2004).]
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