Analysis of electrical fire investigations in ten cities :

Gomberg, Alan; Hall, JW

doi:10.6028/nbs.ir.83-2803

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Heating equipment accounts for 12.4% of the total fires and it was again estimated that only 10% of these are electrical fires. About 8% of "electrical distribution" fires are due to ignition from an overlamped fixture or due to "combustibles too close" [2], thus, the electrical distribution contribution in Table 2 was reduced by 8%. In the "appliances" category, clothes dryer fires account for approximately 3.2% of the total fires, and it is roughly estimated that ¾ of these are non-electrical in nature, reducing the 6.9% total to 4.5%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Research on Electrical Fires: The State of the Art

Babrauskas¹

2008

Fire Saf. Sci.

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Electrical fires-fires directly caused by the flow of electric current or by static electricity-are one of the important types of structure fires. The subsequent development of an electrical fire is generally no different than that of any other type of structural fire. But the mechanisms leading to ignition of an electrical fire are, in many cases, uniquely specialized and in need of specific research to delineate their characteristics. Despite the importance of electrical fires, there has not been any institution in the English-speaking world with a long-term commitment to research in this area. Worldwide, the situation has been much better, due to extensive research in Japan. But most of this body of work was only published in the Japanese language and, consequently, had been unavailable to most scientists and engineers in English-language countries. The publication of the Ignition Handbook presented for the first time in English many of the salient Japanese research results in this field and these, taken together with the scattered studies that have been reported in English, allow a basic understanding of physical mechanisms to be reached. The present review presents the highlights of these findings. The review of the state of the art also shows that there are still a number of gaps where even first-cut research is not available. It is urged that a systematic research effort on electrical fires be established in the US and certain high-priority topics are outlined.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A study by Hall et al [2] examined the causative factor for 105 residential fires. CPSC [13] expanded the scope of this study and provided a summary of causative factors (Table 4); these studies, however, were limited to distribution systems in residential housing.…”

Section: The Causative Factors For Electrical Firesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research on Electrical Fires: The State of the Art

Babrauskas¹

2008

Fire Saf. Sci.

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Temperature Sensitivity of Residential Molded Case Circuit Breakers

Aronstein

2019

IEEE Access

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The experimental results are presented for minimum trip current as a function of temperature for residential circuit breakers. These are often installed in enclosures that are exposed to seasonal temperature extremes. The trip current of these thermally actuated breakers is inversely related to temperature. The relationship is shown to be linear and it varies as much as 2:1 between brands. The trip current at extremely high and low temperatures can be estimated. At low outside ambient temperature the worst case 15 A breakers will not trip at 25 A, which would be the current load of two 1500 W portable heaters plugged into the same 15 A circuit. The diminished overcurrent protection at low temperature may be a factor that contributes to the elevated incidence of residential electrical fires during winter months.INDEX TERMS Breaker, circuit breaker, electrical fire safety, fire investigation, load center, outdoor, residential, temperature, test data, test method, testing.

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Fires originating in branch-circuit NM cables due to installation damage

Babrauskas

2018

Journal of Fire Sciences

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A significant fraction of US structure fires originate in electrical wiring, and there is also reason to believe that these numbers may be systematically undercounted. The role of voltage surges and damaged insulation in creating the potential for fire is discussed. That damaged electrical insulation may lead to fire has been known for a century, yet details of the mechanisms by which this occurs have not been extensively studied. An Underwriters Laboratories study established that damage which may not appear visually striking may result in dielectric failure; such failures can be a direct cause of fire. Case histories are presented illustrating how mechanical damage associated with stapling of NM cables can result in serious fires. Reliability of branch-circuit wiring methods is discussed and possible preventive measures are described.

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Analysis of electrical fire investigations in ten cities :

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Research on Electrical Fires: The State of the Art

Research on Electrical Fires: The State of the Art

Temperature Sensitivity of Residential Molded Case Circuit Breakers

Fires originating in branch-circuit NM cables due to installation damage

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