Red Embers

It came over the radio as a blue arc flame coming from an electrical outlet in the living room. We arrived to no fire, but a scary scene. The bright white walls were scorched and scarred black under the front window - the focal point of the living room. We all have them. The electrical outlet that’s just a tick loose. It pushes when you put a plug into it, and pulls out when you disconnect. You don’t think much of it, do you? I have to admit that I’ve neglected some of my own, but I checked them all as soon as I got home today.

The homeowner was lucky. First of all she had no furniture in front of the outlet. Secondly, she didn’t try to pull the plug back out when she plugged the stereo in and it flashed. When I was finished with the investigation, it was obvious what caused the short circuit that could have burnt her house down. These are my favorite types of investigations. There’s actually enough material left to make a good determination. The circuit in question also fed several other outlets, including an outside outlet. Today that would have been a ground fault protected circuit, but that’s a blog for another day. The hot wire was strip connected in series into the outlet, so the outlet being loose caused a serious problem. Every time the owner or an occupant plugged in something, the outlet moved, the wire rocked in it’s contact channel and the screw securing the wire to the outlet loosened a micron. This happened over about 25 years until today the outlet rocked against the steel electrical box inside the wall and it shorted. The outlet blew off it’s bottom end and threw a blue flame about a foot and a half into the room. The owner was terrified, but she appparently wasn’t terrified enough not to reset the breaker and try to give the outlet power again. Don’t ask me why she would do such a thing, but that’s what happened. Lo and behold, another big arc occurred before the breaker once again tripped out.

The fire engine company arrived and determined with the thermal imaging camera that nothing had caught fire inside the wall, then the guys turned the scene over to me for investigation. The burnt out outlet told me a couple of things that I want to share with you.

First, never ever restore power to a component that has arced without replacing the failed piece. It’s not like a headache. Problems with electrical parts do not fix themselves in my experience, and arc flashing is fatal to whatever took the high energy electrical hit. Have your electrician go over your system in it’s entirety before restoring power to any section that suffered a failure of any kind.

Secondly, if you have any electrical outlets or switches that are loose, broken or seem to intermittently cause problems, get them fixed now. Don’t wait to let the lightning out of the clouds. All it takes is the right (or wrong) move to begin an arc flash incident and serious injury or property damage can occur. The same goes for loose boxes, broken switch and outlet plates and non-working GFI outlets.

Electrical wiring and contacts don’t like to come loose. One thing that always comes back to me whenever I talk about electricity is that you can compare it to water, except that you can see the water. Electrical wires are the pipes that electrical current passes through. You wouldn’t leave a leaking faucet or loose toilet go for very long. Think the same way about your electrical system.

Finally, if you find loose cover plates on your electrical outlets and you feel comfortable doing a little work on your own, get that screwdriver out and get to work. Just a little twist to tighten up those plates could make all the difference in the world.

OK, so you all know I live at the seashore, and I’m a fire chief and that I’m a fire inspector by trade (at least my current trade). I was relaxing at home… OK, I was taking a 30 minute breather at home on Saturday after a long class, but that’s not important. What I observed was though. Boat trailers were everywhere. The water is warming up and flounder season is right around the corner. It’s my understanding that the black drum are starting to bite in the Delaware. So the boats are getting fresh coats of bottom paint and new registration stickers. The motors are tuned up and ready for good times on the high seas. But I wonder what else has been done to prepare the boats, and indeed the occupants, for the summer season.

Have the life jackets been taken out? What shape are they in after winter storage? Can they be relied upon to keep a head above water long enough for help to arrive? What rules are applied to passengers in the boats? Our fireboat drove by today, and it’s still looking a bit rough from the dock pounding it took last summer. But I know that all the firemen’s life jackets are in better shape. They are each assigned and the department engineer inspects them about once a month. Odds are that our guys won’t need their life jackets. Odds are that most others won’t either, but does that mean they’re OK stowed in the mildewy hold of the boat? Shouldn’t you take them out and make sure they’re servicable. It will only cost a little time and not even a fraction of what you paid the mechanic to tune up the motor.

Hmmm… Look at that under the pile of brown spotted life jackets! It’s the fire extinguisher. You wondered where that got to when the mount broke on it last August, didn’t you? The gauge looks good. But is the dry chemical inside still powdery? It might cost all of $20.00 to get that serviced next time you run into town. You think you can afford that? After all you just replaced all of your tackle in anticipation of a banner fishing season! What about fixing that mount so you can actually find the extinguisher if you need it? It’s only a broken screw! The gear case oil cost more than the replacement fastener will.

You checked that mount out didn’t you? What, you found the flare gun? And it’s only out of date by a couple of years! How fortunate! I know, you’d replace it but you don’t know what to do with the old one, and heck, it’s never been shot. A new kit would cost about $60.00. That would almost fill the tank half way. Decisions, decisions! The radio guy already got you for $200.00 for installation of the new antenna.

So, the boats are going in. I wonder how many we’ll have to go help this year. I wonder how many will not return with their owners.