Can you say "Quizno'ed"?

hmmm looks familiar can you say toasted?

Is that (was that) a twist-tie used to replace a missing plug blade? Looks like it got pretty warm in there. I suppose the overcurrent protection wasn't installed correctly either?

Is that aluminium wire? Maybe it wasn't connected correctly (wrong type of outlet (not al/cu), or maybe insufficient anti oxident coumpound used)?

Is anti-oxident required?

Whaddaheck happened there...

Details man details!

Ian A.

Well.. I had a closer look at that outlet and it is or shall I say WAS rated al/cu. as for what happened I don't really know! When I got there the maintanance guy had the 60A main to the unit open. I did look in the panel inside the unit and found the breaker for the stove in the open position. It is an FPE and well they do trip right to the "off" position ( And yes I know what everyone here is thinking.. FPE didnt trip!)..
The maintenance guy and the tenant said they didn't touch the breaker for the stove so I have to assume it did trip...
The only thing I could assume happened is over time the connection got loose, and got hot, and this got worse to the point where the wires and the receptacle started to char and possibly got to the point where the charred remains started to actually "track" and BECOME a fault with enough resistance to limit current to a level that would not trip the breaker BUT would generate a heck of a lot of heat, until something did short out and trip a breaker..

This is a shot in the dark but if the original problem was a dead short in that box , I do not think there would be that kind of damage even if the 40A FPE in the panel did not trip because the 60A in the panel in the hall and no more than 40 feet away would soon trip.. If it were to fail to trip also, I would hope the 400A fuses for the floor would eventually open but not without damage to the apartment and stove conductors... No damage to those conductors was found other than what was near the " hot spot" and like I mentioned the 40A appeared tripped.
What gets me is the tenant did not notice a problem or smell anything burning until the stove quit and he SAW sparks behind the stove and heard a bang!

A.D

So, what's with the missing prong? Did it break off in the outlet or something?

I'LL GUARANTEE IT SCARED THE H#!! OUTTA A FEW MICE.......

Missing Prong???? There is no missing prong! what you see is whats LEFT of one of the prongs of the stove cord! It is damaged that much its thinned out and the top half of the prong is well, non-existant!

Scared mice? What mice? LOL this came right out of the "Roach Motel"!

this came right out of the "Roach Motel"!

mmmmmmmmmm roasted roaches.....

anyone got the tequilla

Now that's just disgusting...

On topic, looks like they were lucky the whole place didn't burn!!

LOL ya didnt hear me say this but if the place caught fire it would have been a blessing in disguise..
1. the place could be cleaned a LOT easier ( as in with a broom and dustpan)
2. It would have smelled a LOT better than it did when NOT burned out.

Did I mention the cockroaches complain about the tenants??? LOL


A.D

LOL!!

Wow that's an ugly sight, I wouldn't want to have seen that when it happened....Not cute at all.

I've never seen a 14-50 receptacle that wasn't rated Al/Cu. I'd say it is a violation of 210.21(B)(1) to connect a 50A receptacle to a 60A breaker. I realize you're in Canada, but I'd bet it's a violation there, too.

How much brass was in those contacts that's not there anymore? How many kWh would it take to vaporize that amount of brass?

Actually the receptacle was connected to a 40A breaker which is standard practice here BUT I do remember one incident where an inspector made someone put the receptacle on a 50A breaker.. I don't know why but the norm here is 14-50 receptacle, 40A breaker.. In this case the "60A" mentioned was the size of the breaker protecting the individual apartment unit in the building..

As for the brass that is now gone, it was a pretty substantial piece on the prong of the plug and I would assume there would be some hefty contacts in the receptacle but this had to have been an ongoing problem, and the tenants are never aware of a problem " in progress", they are only aware of a problem when something stops working or blows up.. ( I will admit the tenant got a good laugh when I suggested he should have taken the pizza out of the oven and thrown it behind the stove, probably would have been done quicker)

A.D