Tips on avoiding electrical fires

The Weaverville Volunteer Fire Department was called last Friday afternoon for the smell of smoke inside a residence on Taylor Street. Firefighters ar-rived to find a strong smell of electrical smoke inside the residence. Through the use of a thermal imaging camera that can detect heat inside a wall, they found an electrical outlet to be the problem.“

There are many causes for duplex outlet failure,” Interim Fire Chief Scott Alvord said. “Loose connections, too many items plugged into the outlet, faulty breaker are just a few items that can cause these circuits to fail.”

Heat-producing electrical appliances such as hair dryers and space heaters tend to use more power than other electrical equipment. Devices like these may overload a circuit, especially one that is already reaching its maximum amperage allowance. If you add a power strip to an outlet and have several of these items plugged in, you can easily overload the circuit, Alvord said.

Coupled with a faulty circuit breaker, this overload can cause the products to overheat and possibly to catch fire. Moreover, electrical fires that start in walls can smolder for some time. By the time the fire is detected, most likely it already has spread within the walls, unseen.

Alvord advised anyone having electrical problems to contact a qualified repair person to have the system checked out. Anyone smelling smoke should contact their local fire department to locate the problem.“

Waiting can be deadly,” Alvord said, adding, “Make sure you have a working smoke detector in your home.”