Analysis of electrical fire investigations in ten cities

Abstract

This interim report describes the progress and conclusions to date on an analysis of electrical fire cases by the Center for Fire Research, National Bureau of Standards for the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The report describes the 110 detailed electrical fire investigation reports from 10 participating cities, and discusses preliminary findings resulting from analysis of the computerized data from those reports. These preliminary findings include factors which may cause overcurrent devices to fail to operate, the role of extension cords misused as permanent extensions of building wiring, and the problems of loose connections between receptacles and wiring. They are being used to guide a follow-on effort, to be reported on at a later date, to obtain, encode and analyze additional data from the original 110 cases. This second effort will better define and describe the most significant failure modes of electrical components and the sequences of events that lead to electrical fire ignition. 1 .