Electrical Fires
Electrical Fires
More often than not, electricity is overlooked as fire hazard. This could be because there is no flame with electricity but a lot of people forget about the fact that it can be so dangerous. However, more than 28,000 fires in the home are reported each year with the fault being down to electrical faults, accidents or misuse of electrical equipment.
There are some particular danger signs that you can look out for on any electrical item in your home and these include:
- Hot plugs and sockets
- Fuses that blow frequently
- Flickering lights
- Scorch marks on plugs or the socket
- Badly wired plugs
- Frayed power leads
- Repaired power leads
- Overloaded sockets
- Badly positioned cables
- Water near electrical items
There are some very simple ways to avoid any of these being the reason for any possible electrical fire in your home. Regular maintenance on your electrical appliance, especially ones that are used on a daily basis or contain a motor and run at high speeds should be checked with the latter being serviced at least once a year by an electrician. You should check before using a plug that it is wired correctly. The outer covering of the power cable itself should go inside the plug and there should be no breaks or wires sticking out as this can not only cause electric shocks but in the worst case scenario can cause fire. You should always use plug sockets safely and should never allow the total current used by any appliances plugged into an adaptor to add up to over 13 amps altogether. Finally and most simply is to turn off and unplug your device after using it, it may sound stupid, but many house fires have been caused by something as trivial as accidentally leaving a hair straightener plugged in and turned on.
If you fear that you may be at risk of electrical fire from any of the bullet points seen above, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and one of our qualified electricians will be more than happy to help with your problem.
