I saw a similiar thing a couple years ago, with a black lady whose son (the
apartment handyman) had tried to run an AC off a lamp cord extension. I got
called out cause the AC wasn't working. And so I went to the store and
bought them a bigger cord.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.org
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"indago" wrote in message
...
There is a sad story in the Detroit News about a Hispanic family that was
lost in a fire that didn't have to happen. The only one left in the family
is the father, who was at work when this happened. His wife and five
children were all lost to the fire. The family was using one of those plug
strips that has four or five outlets on them and a short extension cord
about 5 feet long. It was plugged into the wall and the stereo, TV
entertainment center items, lamp, and window air-conditioner were all
plugged into the outlets in the plug strip. All of the other items would
have been OK, but to add the window air-conditioner to the plug strip, that
has a cord probably capable of carrying 12 amps, was just too much for the
plug strip and the cord got hot and melted the insulation and started a fire
behind the couch, then up the wall, and trapped all inside and they died of
smoke inhalation. The city was trying to fine a way to blame the owner of
the house, who had a few other properties in Detroit rented out, but such
carelessness was not the responsibility of the landlord. He didn't ask
anyone to plug in a plug strip and then overload it beyond its capacity.
Just because it has 5 outlets on it doesn't mean that you can plug in the
toaster, microwave, refrigerator, electric frying pan, and coffeemaker all
at the same time and expect everything to work OK.

I wrote this here so that anyone who does have a similar plug strip in their
home can examine what is plugged into it and make some calculations and put
their hand on the cord to see if it is warm. The strip will handle things
like a computer, printer, and other computer related peripherals, or a TV
entertainment and stereo equipment center, but check periodically to see how
the cord is doing. Don't let such a tragedy befall your family.