ELECTRICAL FIRE OUTBREAKS IN HOMES: causes and solutions

By
Engr H. E. Orovwode. (MNSE, REngr)
Electrical and Information Engineering Department, College of Science and Technology,
Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.
(E-mail: ejipe2002@yahoo.com)
Abstract
If the full benefit of the deregulation is to be enjoyed, standards have to be maintained in utilization of
electrical power. The rate of fire outbreaks in Nigeria and other parts of the world in recent times is
assuming a threatening proportion. Most of which are attributed to electrical faults. Properties worth
millions of Naira and many lives are lost annually to this sinister of fire. This paper , therefore, x- rays
the causes of electrical fire to include heat from poor connections and glowing connection, short
circuit, incorrectly installed wiring ,overloaded circuits and extension cords; Improper plugs, switches
and outlets; misuse and poor maintenance of lighting; lack of proper protection and earthing system.
This problem, however, can be greatly reduced or eliminated by adequate orientation on the part of
consumers, proper installation practice, effective cable selection and rating as well as installation of
sensitive protective equipment and early fire warning devices. This paper will be of great relevance to
individuals, institutions, power utility providers and government orientation and regulation agencies.

Keywords: heat, fire, safety, protection, prevention

1.0 Introduction: Electric currents (I) carried by wiring, switches,

You need to understand and respect the power of
electricity and the role it can play in home fires.
If the full benefit of the deregulation is to be
enjoyed, standards have to be maintained in
utilization of electrical power.
It can start in an instant and consume your home
in just minutes. It takes lives, injures victims,
destroys homes, and steals precious possessions.
Fire can harm all of us [5]
1.1 How fire burns
Fire requires three elements, both to ignite and to
continue burning: They are
Heat: Common heat sources include a hot stove
burner, a spark from a worn electrical wire
. Fuel: Just about everything in your home can
fuel a fire — clothing, food, furniture, clutter,
paper, plastics and more.
Oxygen: The oxygen in the air around us also
fuels a fire. As a fire burns, the heat it creates
warms nearby items, making it even easier for
them to start burning, too. The bigger the fire
gets, the more quickly it spreads. In less than 30
seconds, a small flame can turn into a major
blaze.
plugs and appliances generate heat .The quantity
of heat generated being a function of the
resistance (R) of the load is given as
I2R (1)
Excessive or uncontrolled heat can start fires.
Properties and valuables worth millions of naira
and a lot of lives are being lost annually to
electrical related fire. Though accurate statistics
are not available in Nigeria, however, in Benin
City (Edo State) alone, not less than five houses
were raised down by fire between September and
December 2006 whose causes were linked
directly or indirectly to electrical faults
Thisday newspaper headquarters in Lagos, the
asset declaration unit of the code of conduct
bureau in Abuja, Chevron headquarters in Lagos
and the medical laboratory in Katsina General
Hospital in Katsina State were not spared by fire
recently.
Consider these startling statistics: In the United
States of America, there is a home-fire injury
every 23 minutes. A home-fire death happens
every 130 minutes. In 2000 alone, 3,420 people
died in home fires one of the highest fire death
rates among industrialized nations. [7]
Japan has approximately 60000 fires a year. The
number of fires related to electrical cause or
electrical appliances are shown in table 1 [1,2]

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Table 1 Statistics of electrical fires in Japan
Year 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985
Total number of fires 59885 59865 63272 58833 59674 55763
Electric heater for cooking 192 193 155 176 190
Electric room heater 363 457 539 511 637 503
Cable for lighting or telephone 800 881 930 944 972 978
Electrical equipments 502 445 471 447 453 489
Electrical appliances 819 713
Wiring devices 398 459 468 450 428 507
Light including neon light 358 321 331 310
Electric Iron 130 128 94 98
Others 1659 1564 1582 1590
Note: Blank is due to the change of classification. (Source: Japanese report on Electrical fire cause (1996))

1.2 Effects of Electrical fire:
 Electrical Fire Creates Poisonous
Smoke: Smoke and poisonous gases
spread quickly from where the fire
begins and can overwhelm you long
before you see any flames. Two
common deadly gases in home fires are:
Carbon monoxide — displaces oxygen
from the blood and Carbon dioxide —
causes people to breathe more quickly
and inhale more poisonous gas.
 Electrical Fire Creates Intense Heat:
In the first few minutes of a home fire,
room temperature can reach 100ºF at
floor level and 600ºF at eye level. This
intense heat can cause serious injuries
and death:
 Electrical Fire Creates Emotional
Trauma: In addition to the physical
dangers, fire takes a tremendous
emotional toll on people and their
families. Losing one's home and
treasured possessions is traumatic.
Belongings collected throughout your
lifetime or handed down for generations
are impossible to replace.
1.3 Causes of electrical fire:
The chief culprits in most electrical fires are:
 Incorrectly installed wiring. Any
electrical installation that is not well
planned, designed and installed poses a
great danger for the end user.
Installation done without regards to IEE
regulations and proper cable sizing by
unqualified and unlicensed Electricians
is a risk. Many homes and offices have
been raised down by fire resulting from
installations carried out by “let there be
light” Electricians
 Overloaded circuits and extension
cords. Most users of electrical circuits
and extension cords plug any load
without considering its capacity. It
should be noted that every circuit is
connected with cable and every cable
has its current carrying capacity.
Therefore, loading any circuit above its
capacity means inviting trouble.
 Improper plugs, switches and outlets.
The use of improper plugs that does not
fit to sockets, switches that are under
rated and indiscriminate connection of
power outlets through unsafe (where
there are inflammable materials like
rug, carpet, etc) areas causes short
circuits and the consequent fire.
 Misuse and poor maintenance of
lighting: Every lighting point has its
capacity. The practice in some areas
(especially places where there are
regular voltage drops) is plugging
200W incandescent bulb in 60W lamp
holders in other to solve poor
illumination problem. Some consumers
even connect socket extension to
lighting point. It should be noted that
lighting point connection is usually at
the ceiling which have some
inflammable materials that can burst
into flame when excessive heat is
generated around them. Poor
illumination problem can be solved
using automatic voltage regulators
(AVRs) [Usifo, (2006)].

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  Glowing connection and heat from
poor connections: A series of
experiments has been carried out to
study the phenomenon of glow at the
contacts of copper-to copper as well as
copper - to- other metals and its link to
electrical fire. In these experiments, the
contacts of copper wires connected to
AC or DC power source and a variable
load resistance in series were used. The
results show that Iron starts glowing
more easily than copper or brass. But
the electrical energy dissipated at the
glowing copper oxide or brass oxide is
larger than that dissipated at the
glowing iron oxide [1].This phenomena
can hardly be found until a fire starts
because the voltage drop at the contact
is only several Volts and most electrical
appliances are not affected by it. Small
current (AC 0.5A) can start this
phenomena and the maximum
temperature at the glow, although which
is very small, will exceed 1000o C. This
could lead to fire outbreak. A very
conspicuous place where this
phenomenon is observable is the cut-out
fuse point which is usually mounted on
wooden board where aluminum cables
from service lines are connected with
copper used in the house installation
and it is located close to the ceiling in
most cases. It can be noticed that
contacts around this area are always
charred.
 short circuit : shot circuit arising from
usage of faulty and old appliances,
cables with worn-out or partially broken
insulation can causes fire especially
when installation lacks sensitive and
effective
 Lack of proper protection and
earthing system. Many consumers look
at the cost of installing protective
facilities as a waste since its function is
not evident on daily basis. Those who
manage to install at the beginning do
not bother to repair or replace them
when they are faulty. When duty calls
they will definitely fail you.
1.4 Safety tips for Electrical fire prevention:
In view of the above discussions, the following
safety tips are suggested:
1. Proper orientation:
Have a just-in-case plan. Make sure your kids
know what to do if the fire alarm goes off. They
should hold hands and stay together, and one
parent should be in charge of leading them out to
a safe place. They should know how to get in
formation and follow orders, even when half
asleep.. You should keep a strong flashlight by
your bed in case your power fails, as it often will
during a fire. Rehearse your escape plan several
times a year. Know how to get out. If you are
upstairs and the fire gets to your stairway before
you do, you could be in serious trouble if you
don’t have an escape plan. Be sure all your
windows open easily, and keep some escape
ladders in your upper floors. Make sure both
spouses and older children know how to unfold,
safely attach, and use the ladders. Practice
escaping from any upper floors of the house a
few times a year. Be sure that all your fire
extinguishers will work for wood, chemical, and
electrical fires because not all brands do. Make
sure both spouses and all older children know
how to use the fire extinguishers.
Educate all in your house never to leave
anything that could catch fire near a heat source,
like an oven, a radiator, or a portable and switch
off any gadget that is not in use before leaving
the house.
1.5. Warning Signs:
The following warning signs [4] may indicate
electrical problems that could cause a fire. If you
experience any of these warning signs in your
home, contact a licensed electrician to repair the
problem:
 Flickering or dimming lights.
 Switches or outlets that are hot to the
touch or emit an acrid odor.
 Discolored cords, outlets and
switchplates.
 Repeated blowing of fuses or tripped
circuit breakers.
Employ the services of a qualified and
licensed engineer and/or electrician to:
 To design and install all electrical
services in your home and offices
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 Inspect a home and make any needed
repairs anytime the need arises.
 Ensure that any electrical modifications
meet existing codes.
 Inspect and repair outlets and switches.
 Earth the installation and regularly
check its efficacy.
1.6 In the case of Fuses and Circuit
Breakers,
 Be sure to replace fuses or circuit
breakers with ones of the correct size.
Cords, Outlets and Plugs [4]
Be safety conscious by taking these
precautions when using plugs and
electrical cords:
 Don't run cords under carpeting,
bedding or other combustible materials,
or across doorways or frequently
traveled areas.
 Discard frayed or broken cords and
never splice two cords together.
 Don't overload outlets or use extension
cords in place of outlets because these
unsafe methods create too much heat
and can easily cause fires. Call an
electrician to install additional outlets as
necessary.
 Be sure plugs fit snugly in outlets to
prevent shock and excess heat.
 Don’t use two pin plugs for connecting
any appliance that has metallic
enclosure
For lightings,
Combustible materials can ignite easily
when they are exposed to hot bulbs. Keep
the following tips in mind when using light
fixtures:
 Purchase quality lamps and fixtures
listed with Underwriters Laboratories
(UL), an independent, not-for-profit
safety testing and certification
organization.
 Use the right bulb wattage for all lamps
and fixtures.
 Position lamps away from open
windows where strong breezes can blow
draperies onto hot light bulbs.
3. Installation of fire early warning
devices like fire alarms and detectors: [3]
A fire alarm is a control device that detects
and reports fire. Keep your fire alarms in
working order. Make sure you have working
fire alarms on every floor of the house
especially the kitchen and near your
bedroom because most fatal home fires
begin in one room and kill people in
other rooms only after the fire
has reached extremely high
temperatures in the room of fire origin
and the fire spreads to
other rooms of the house. These fires are
readily detected by all common types of
smoke detectors in time for sleeping
occupants to be awakened and escape..
You should change the batteries twice a
year. Don’t ever turn off or remove your fire
alarms for any reason. People most often do
this when they’re cooking and creating a lot
of smoke that fire alarm can get annoying
when it keeps going off while you are trying
to cook. Don’t smash the alarm to turn them
off It is easy to forget to turn it back on.
Instead, open the windows and turn on the
kitchen fan before you start cooking. It’s
also best not to trust that your fire alarms
work, even if they have fresh batteries
always test them by lighting a match
underneath
4. Use of fire proof safe: It is extremely
important never to run back into a burning
building, for any reason it could be a death
sentence. If there is something you really
don’t want to lose like valuable documents
or jewelry, buy a fireproof safe or cabinet to
keep it in. That way, you won’t worry about
leaving something important inside the
house, and you won’t be tempted to run
back in especially if the fire doesn’t look
that bad yet. Even if it doesn’t look that bad,
it can still kill you. Keeping your most
important belongings in a fireproof safe or
cabinet could save your life.
Conclusion:
This paper has looked into the problems of fire,
effects of fire and causes of electrical fire which
include heat from poor connections and
glowinging connection, short circuit, incorrectly
installed wiring, overloaded circuits and
extension cords; Improper plugs, switches and
4
outlets; misuse and poor maintenance of lighting;
lack of proper protection and earthing system.
This paper, also, had suggested that this
problem can be greatly reduced or eliminated by
adequate orientation and imbibing good safety
culture on the part of consumers, proper
installation practice, effective cable selection and
rating on the part of designers and utility
providers as well as installation of sensitive [4]
protective equipment and early fire warning http://www.llnl.gov/es_and_h/hsm/doc_
devices. Standards have to be maintained in 16.01/doc16-01.html (retrieved on
utilization of electrical power if the full benefit Sunday 20th January, 2006)
of the deregulation is to be enjoyed,
[5]
References: http://www.thehartford.com/firesence
[1] Hagimoto, Y (1996) “Fire Hazards of .htm (retrieved on Sunday 20th January,
Wiring and Wiring Devices” Summary 2006)
of Annual Meeting of Japan Society for
Safety Engineering (JAFSE) (March
1996) pg 10 [6] Usifo, F. O. (2006) “poor illumination at
home for electricity users, causes and
[2] Hagimoto, Y., Watanabe, N., Kinoshita solutions”; paper presented at the
K.; (1996) “Fire Hazard of Short international conference on Engineering
Circuits on Electrical Wiring” Research and Development, University
Summary of Annual Meeting of Japan of Benin , Benin city, Nigeria;
Society for Safety Engineering (JAFSE) September, 2006.
(March 1996) pgs 13-15
[7] US department of commerce, fire
[3] http://www.mcgelectricalsystems. investigation handbook (2002) (NBS
com/smoke_detectors.html (retrieved on handbook), US, GPO.
Sunday 20th January, 2006)