"Swingman" wrote in message
...

"Toller" wrote in message

Yes, you needed to have a cover plate. An electrical box is supposed to
contain an electrical fire. Presumably your bookshelves are combustible?
Admittedly, the chances of an arc in the connections severe enough to
cause
a fire are very very small, but I wouldn't be comfortable with it. If
you
had fastened a piece of sheet metal over the opening, that probably would
have been okay, even if it didn't meet code.

I wouldn't be comfortable at all.

19 years ago I had a small fire in an interior wall of a 50 year old house
(small, only because my 3 year old daughter came to me at 1:30 PM and
insisted I come look at the "pretty lights" in the living room behind the
clock, and I caught it in time) due to a splice that shorted and caught
the
wall on fire.

The splice was in a box, with no lid, and then drywalled over. I had no
idea
it was there.

Essentially, it was a time bomb that took 45 years to go off ... thank
goodness in the afternoon, instead of 1:30 in the morning.

well, I am suggesting metal rather than drywall. There isn't much
difference between sheet metal and a blank box cover.

but, how did the wall catch fire? I would expect the dry wall to be
charred, but it shouldn't have actually caught fire.

I should have had a fire when a mouse chewed through a wire right next to
where we kept napkins. His front half vaporized, but miraculously the
napkins didn't catch.