House Fires

[BoKnows]

Thought this may be helpful..........

HOUSE FIRES -
PLEASE READ AND PASS ON
Received from a friend who is in the property insurance business.
It is well worth reading. This is one of those e-mails that if you didn't send it, rest assured someone on your list will suffer for not reading it. The original message was written by a lady whose brother and his wife learned a hard lesson this past week. Their house burned down...nothing left but ashes. They have good insurance so the house will be replaced with most of the contents - that is the good news. However, they were sick when they found out the cause of the fire.
The insurance investigator sifted through the ashes for several hours. He had the cause of the fire traced to the master bathroom. He asked her sister-in-law what she had plugged in the bathroom.
She listed the normal things....curling iron, blow dryer. He kept saying to her, "No, this would be something that would disintegrate at high temperatures". Then her sister-in-law remembered she had a Glade Plug-In, in the bathroom. The investigator said that was the cause of the fire. He said he has seen more house fires started with the plug-in type room fresheners than anything else. He said the plastic they are made from is THIN plastic. He also said that in every case there was nothing left to prove that it even existed.
When the investigator looked in the wall plug, sure enough the two prongs left from the plug-in were still in there. Her sister-in-law had one of the plug-ins that had a small night light built in it. She said she had noticed that the light would dim and then finally go out. She would walk in to the bathroom a few hours later, and the light would be back on again. The investigator said that the unit was getting too hot, and would dim and go out rather than just blow the light bulb. Once it cooled down it would come back on. That is a warning sign The investigator said he personally wouldn't have any type of plug in fragranc e device anywhere in his house.has seen too many places that have been burnt down due to them.
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO ALL THE PEOPLE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.
NOT ONLY COULD IT SAVE SOMEONE'S HOUSE, BUT IT COULD SAVE SOMEONE'S
LIFE.

HOUSE FIRES;;

PLEASE READ
(From Chief Dornell)
Ok, I had one similar to this at my place in the mountains; it used the slide-in packets. Last weekend I unplugged it to use the outlet and found that the unit had melted and scorched the face of the outlet so I decided to replace the outlet. I went to my panel and shut off the circuit breaker. Upon pulling the cover plate I found that the outlet had burnt away, melted a considerable portion in the interior plastic wall box and wire insulation. Obviously, this got very hot and I was very lucky that this did not cause a fire in the wall because I would have certainly lost my place. Notice that my breaker did not trip and I manually shut it off. I need to investigate why. Perhaps it was a steady current and never caused a surge or arcing that would have tripped the circuit breaker. I am encouraging everyone I know to pass on the fact that these are potentially dangerous. The Consumer Products Safety Commission does not have a recall on the specific mo del that I was using. However, they will be hearing from me. Our Fire Prevention personnel will be using the remnant that I brought back to help spread the word through the Fire Prevention community as well. If you use something similar to this or other "plug-in" products take the time to pull them and toss them. We can't afford to be the proving grounds for these devices. It is my opinion that these are unsafe and should be pulled
before something tragic occurs.

[Realtechfan]

Thanks I will pass this on to my wife because she has like 2 in each room...She loves them Damn things so I will be sure to let her read this so I can then watch her unplugg all of the and pack them up

[homedawg]

good info bo, recieved this info before. Better info would be to "Check & Test your circuit breakers, and replace as needed" I know there are alot of boxes with breakers that are rated to high, there is no reason to run a non appliance room with higher than 15amp breakers, and those will "trip" easily.
Using GFCI Outlets, will prevent any issue even more.

[xHeroOfTheDayx]

House destroyed by plug-in air fresheners-Fiction! But Other Info!

[snowman]

wow. very interesting. thanks,i had no idea

[joepa66]

Hmmmmmm, just stick with the candles that go out when the oil is gone....and don't knock them over!

[Big Pimpin]

Originally Posted by homedawg

good info bo, recieved this info before. Better info would be to "Check & Test your circuit breakers, and replace as needed" I know there are alot of boxes with breakers that are rated to high, there is no reason to run a non appliance room with higher than 15amp breakers, and those will "trip" easily.
Using GFCI Outlets, will prevent any issue even more.

Not entirely true there but close

1. The average homehowner can't test their circuit breakers. Simply turning them on and off doesn't prove squat. You have to have the right equipment to do it.

2. Almost everywhere in the country now requires rec/game/garage room to be wired for 20amp circuits. Also and room adjacent to and including the kitchen shall also be wired to 20 amps with the kitchen requiring at least 2 circuits. I have done many houses that were almost entirely 20 amp circuits for every receptacle circuit in the house. In todays life of home computers and stereos/tv's/space heaters etc..it's really not that bad an idea

3. GFCI Outlets though great are really only good for water involved areas such as near a sink/countertop/outside/garage etc...

4. The real fix to the problem and I can only speak for Md and Va is the proper use of AFCI Circuit Breakers( Arc Fault). These are alot more sensitive then GFCI breakers and are now mandatory for EVERY circuit that goes to ANY bedroom receptacle and lighting circuit. They are expensive and can be installed in any home by a qualified person...ie..if you don't know what you are doing then don't try it yourself. Hopefully all states require these for new work/additions and remodels.

5. The worst thing I personally know off to use in ones house are extention cords,****ty power packs for multiple plugs( good ones cost 40$ and up)and the worst of all is those tiny space heaters. Many of these require a circuit dedicated for them and I have seen ALOT of wiring burned up due to these. There is no way in hell I would have one in my house.



6. Here to help so hopefully this qualifies as an informative post and doesn't get me banned for useless posting again

[yomonte]

BP, you get one mulligan, use it wisely. Check your email chief

[Big Pimpin]

Originally Posted by yomonte

BP, you get one mulligan, use it wisely. Check your email chief

Back at you