got lucky tonight

ericlb · Aug 6, 2010

came home late smelled smoke and something really was stinking, found a wall switch hot and i mean hot! i pulled the cover off and it was glowing red hot then by the time i got the breaker thrown it had started dripping sparks down in the wall,i tore the panneling off and checked for fire, wasnt any but man that switch was melted into a glob of goo, another 10 munutes and i would have lost the house, got a electrician coming to repair it all tommorrow , hope he can find the cause too have no idea why the breaker didnt self trip

MarkB_MI · Aug 6, 2010

Lucky, indeed. I think this is exactly the sort of fault an Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) is supposed to detect.

My guess is you simply had a defective switch that got hot. Do you know if the switch was turned on? Some houses have aluminum wiring that can cause fires, as well.
Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter

Anonymous-0 · Aug 6, 2010

(quoted from post at 22:11:44 08/05/10) got a electrician coming to repair it all tommorrow , hope he can find the cause too have no idea why the breaker didnt self trip

Bet you don't sleep tonight.......

Our wiring is old in our house. I've replaced some as I've redone some rooms (service box is new just attached to old wires). Not real worried about a fire because there is no wood anywhere near the wiring, but still will be glad when I replace a few more.

Good luck,

Dave

ericlb · Aug 6, 2010

this is a older house, does not have afci protection, wires are copper, at least these are, switch was on, sure was a lesson for me as i thought a short would trip the breaker but it didnt this time

gregk · Aug 6, 2010

some times it canbe a breaker problem too. Federal Pacific(fire pacific) panels are the worst. I blew a hole in my screwdriver with a dead short and it didn't trip the 15 amp breaker and this is common to the brand. Also as stated before aluminum wiring can be a big problem too. let us know what the sparky finds out.

Chris (WA) · Aug 6, 2010

That is just the thing it may not have been shorted. Just poor contact in the switch causing heat due to resistance. Think how hot an electric heater can get then picture that heat inside that switch.

tjdub · Aug 6, 2010

Yeah, if it was me, I would go through the house and replace every switch that looked anything like the one that melted. I would definitely blame the switch before the breaker, but test the breakers too. Your toaster can melt things and start fires, doesn't mean it should trip the breaker. Best to replace any switch that could be a toaster.

ericlb · Aug 6, 2010

the electrician determined the problem was in the switch itself, also found one more he didnt like he will replace both switches as well as their boxes and wiring, all else tested fine, maybe i can sleep tonight without getting up every 10 minutes to see if something is on fire or not

730 virgil · Aug 6, 2010

i had same kind of problem with a/c breaker wouldn't trip by it's self. a/c wouldn't shut off unless it was tripped manually.
a/c man said he didn't know why it catch house on fire

got lucky tonight

ericlb

Well-known Member

MarkB_MI

Well-known Member

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

ericlb

Well-known Member

gregk

Member

Chris (WA)

Member

tjdub

Member

ericlb

Well-known Member

730 virgil

Well-known Member

Similar threads