I don't have any details of the situation, so I'm just looking for a
ballpark, well-in-theory, kind of answer.

I had a tenant say that her TV was "destroyed" (I don't know what that
means exactly) and that the fire department said that it was "bad
wiring" in the house, and that we need to bring in an electrician to
fix it. It's perfectly plausible that the wiring is bad - it's an old
house, and the previous owner did DIY work on the wiring and messed a
few things up.

So I'm wondering how would "bad wiring" cause a TV to get destroyed?
I've never heard of this before.