My neighbor just suffered a serious fire. His house had an enclosed
porch at the rear, with an open, roofed desk connected to the porch
rear. He had several GFI breakers out there, including one on the
rear porch wall. Around one AM, when he and family were asleep,
a fire started at that GFI switch (according to Fire Marshall), and
got going pretty good before their dog started barking. That saved
their lives for sure. Almost killed their dog and cat, though. The
fire badly burned the rear half of the house and sent black soot
throughout the rest of the house. The house is pretty well totaled.

That's what happened. I have to wonder how a GFI could do that!
I heard the Fire Marshall actually say that what happened was the GFI
wires arced, but that was not a 'short' to the GFI. Hence it didn't
trip. So, the GFI presented no protection did it! The arcing just
continued until it started the fire!

All this makes me think that my GFIs are not providing me the
protection I always thought they did. I'm not sleeping as well these
days.

Anyone have an opinion about this?

Thanks

me

GFCI devices don't provide short circuit protection. They provide ground
fault protection. The device that would have, should have prevented this
is the circuit breaker, or better still, an arc fault circuit breaker


Right, the usual GFCI does not against electrical arcs. The National
Electrical Code now requires arc fault circuit interrupters (AFCI) in
certain rooms of homes to reduce such fires. Wikipedia has a good summary
of what GFCIs can and cannot do at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc-fau...it_interrupter Arcing that
results from loose connection at outlets and switches or broken wires are
a
major cause of house fires.

Tomsic

So it seems like the ground fault is especially useful near water
faucets and wet places.

But the arc fault seems especiallly useful everywhere, not just
bedrooms. Does that mean every circuit breaker should be arc fault?


*Article 210.12 in the 2011 National Electrical Code requires them for
almost every circuit in a home.