"Swingman" wrote

"Toller" wrote in message

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

That's what makes it chilling, eh?

It "shouldn't have", but it did!

By the time I got there the stud the box was attached to was in flames ...
indeed a 'chilling' event.

With a young child in the house, and even after I tore out the drywall all
the way to the ceiling on both sides of the wall, and was absolutely sure
that there was not a spark left (there was no 'fire blocking' of studs in
those days, apparently) to come back to life, I spent that entire night,
and
the next day, awake and on "fire watch".

Shudder every time I recollect it.


I can relate.

It was lucky that you had a bright kid who wanted to show her dad some
"pretty lights".

I moved into a house that had all kinds of compromised electrical work. No
doubt, done by some bumpkin who wanted to "save money" and had no concept of
safety. I went nuts and replaced everything that I could. It already had a
new breaker box and half of the wiring was new. But no ground connections
were made in any of the new wiring.

There was a big basement that was lighted by a number of recycled 8 foot
commercial flouescent fitures. There was one right at the foot of the
stairs. I was coming down the stairs just a week or so after moving in one
day. I smelled something funny coming out of the fixture.

I popped of the cover and some smoke came out. There was varnish dripping
out of the ballast! I immediately turned off the lights and stood vigil
until everything was cool. I then pulled out all the ballasts from all the
fixtures. Every single one of them was melting and a fire was just days
away from happening. He must of got a great deal on these fixtures.

I replaced the ballasts on the lights and everything worked just fine for
the next 24 years. I was quite upset at the time. And I still get a chill
thinking about how close I cane to having a newly purchased house burn to
the ground.