Electrical Fire Safety & Prevention in the Home

Essential Steps to Ensure Your Home’s Electrical Safety

Since man first stood upright, leaving only one set of footprints in the sand, fire has served as both an ally and a nemesis. From illumination to warmth, from cooking to tool making, from offense to defense, fire is vital to the advancement of our species. Yet, within a few brief moments, fire can turn on its user and erase all that was gained. 

For fire to remain useful to us, we must contain and control it. It has a mind of its own and is constantly seeking to escape and enjoy life on the wild side. Even knowing this, we continually consent to fire’s erratic personality because the benefits tend to outweigh its propensity for destructiveness.

Table of Contents

• The Fire Triangle
• How Electrical Fires Start
• Electrical Fire Prevention
  • Electrical Safety Tips
• Early Detection
  • Types of Smoke Alarms
  • Battery Vs. 120 Volt Hard-Wired: Which Is Better?
  • When Should You Consider Battery and Hard-Wired?
• Stay Safe With Lippolis Electric

The Fire Triangle

The fire triangle best describes the three basic elements: oxygen, heat, and fuel, which are the foundation of fire.

Knowing which elements create a fire, consider that our homes are primarily wooden with plenty of oxygen between walls. In the middle of the lowest level is a furnace or boiler we don’t usually attend to for months at a time.

In most cases, electrical equipment, another source of ignition, is within a few feet of these appliances. Electricity possesses many of the same qualities as fire, and our dependency on it is equally complex. For safety purposes, we must contain and control both electricity and fire. 

According to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), there were about 374,300 residential fires nationwide in 2022, causing approximately $10.8 billion in losses. These losses were a result of cooking, heating, unintentional and electrical malfunction fires, with the last category representing 26,100 fires in 2022. 

Based on these statistics, it’s clear that electricity malfunctions can create the spark that sets the fire triangle into motion. These malfunctions occur when you fail to maintain electrical equipment over time.

How Electrical Fires Start

Any electrical appliance or product that isn’t working correctly could generate enough spark to result in combustion. 

The following are a few electrical fire safety concerns that can result in an incident:

• Overloading circuits through the excessive use of plug strips.
• Using improper wire size for appliances and other electrical loads.
• Failing to repair defective wiring in and outside the walls, like extension cords.
• Using faulty appliances.
• Placing combustible material near electricity.
• Using faulty switches. 
• Failing to ground two-prong wall outlets.
• Using faulty lighting fixtures.
• Utilizing space heaters, air conditioners and other forms of localized heat or cooling appliances leveraging existing circuitry.
• Allowing water to come into contact with electrical equipment and wiring.
• These common causes of electrical fires bring us to preventive maintenance and early warning and detection.

Electrical Fire Prevention

As electrical connections begin to age over time, the tight metal-to-metal contact may start to separate from thermal expansion. As the wire conductors begin to heat up and expand, nothing is present in the circuit to bring the two metals back together once the heat subsides. Over time, this forces the electricity to ‘jump’ from metal-to-metal which is the essence of arcing. Arcing then becomes a degenerative process, forcing the two metals further apart until there is some form of ignition or the circuit begins to fail.

Finding these connections for maintenance may be difficult, but you can detect them in some cases without exposing yourself to electrical currents. You can check for electrical fire with your senses of touch and hearing. Detect heat with a simple touch of the hand or listen for a distinctive ‘sizzle’ or ‘buzzing’ sound.

Remember that the self-maintenance of electrical equipment often requires exposing oneself to electrical energy. It is best to leave this task to the professionals.

Electrical Fire Safety Tips

Staying safe requires taking caution and observing the following safety practices:

• Schedule an annual home maintenance inspection for your electrical system.
• Evaluate circuits that are repeatedly tripping for potential overload.
• Properly ground the entire electrical system.
• Upgrade existing two-prong outlets to three-prong outlets. The third prong grounds the outlet. 
• Ground faulty outlets in all locations where water is present.
• Unplug appliances when you’re not using them.
• Replace defective wiring.
• Never force a plug into an outlet with unnecessary force.
• Consider upgrading all existing outlets to a tamper-resistant style.
• Keep all cords and other wiring away from electrical heat sources.
• Replace any dimmers or pieces of electrical equipment with a ‘buzzing’ or ‘sizzling’ sound.
• Always consider extension cords to be nothing more than temporary.
• Repair or replace any switch or outlet that’s weak or ‘wobbly’ immediately.
• Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations when using generators. 

Early Detection

In past years, studies show during the early onset of a fire, home occupants had up to 10 full minutes to gather each other and their belongings and get out of the burning house. Still, today, that number has dropped to 3 minutes or less due to the presence of materials and items made from plastics, aka hydrocarbons, aka petroleum, aka oil. These items ignite faster, burn hotter, and spread fire and its toxicity faster than other naturally occurring fibers. For this reason, early detection of a house fire is directly tied to our survivability. An electric fire alarm will alert you early and give you more time to react.

Before we discuss the two types of smoke or fire alarms, let’s look at the difference between a smoke detector and an alarm.

Smoke detectors are generally a component of a more comprehensive, monitored, low-voltage alarm system and signal to a central source when activated, which in turn sounds the alarm (both in the house and dialed out). Smoke alarms, on the other hand, either battery-powered or 120 volts, sound the alarm at their station and can be interconnected through hard wiring or radio frequency with other similar alarms throughout the house to provide an unmistakable audible shrill sure to wake the deepest of sleepers.

Detectors and alarms are often interchanged one for the other, but in this article, we’ll use the proper terminology of “alarms.”

Types of Smoke Alarms

When you go shopping, you’ll discover two kinds of fire alarms — ionization and photoelectric. Each responds differently to the presence of smoke. The type of smoke present determines whether a fire is flaming or smoldering. Ionization alarms react faster to flaming fires, while photoelectric alarms respond sooner to smoldering fires.

Because no two fires are the same, knowing which alarm to purchase is difficult. Fortunately, the market now offers dual-sensor alarms with photoelectric and ionization recognition in either battery or hardwired versions. These dual-sensor alarms are different from combination smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. 

Battery Vs. 120 Volt Hard-Wired: Which Is Better?

The 120-volt hardwired alarm is superior because it’s hands-free and requires zero maintenance. Battery smoke alarms require annual replacement, often with expensive 9-volt batteries.

Here, we wish to distinguish between battery-powered smoke alarms and their hard-wired relatives. All hard-wired alarms have a battery backup system that provides audible notice even after the power has gone out during a fire event. Like their battery-powered cousins, they chirp when power supplies run low to encourage you to replace the battery and keep your protection active.

When Should You Consider Battery and Hard-Wired?

The Residential Code of New York state contains guidelines on the type of alarm residents should get. These guidelines are ever-evolving, changing significantly over the years. Today’s requirements are in the 2020 Residential Code of New York state NY Section R314.3 ‘Location’ which states you should install a smoke alarm in the following places:

• Each room where people sleep. 
• In areas close to the bedrooms. 
• Basements, additional stories and habitable attics. 
• Near the opening of any bathroom with a bathtub or shower.

Since April 1, 2019, the law in New York state requires residents to use hard-wired smoke alarms or fire alarms with a sealed, non-removable battery. The law calls for a minimum battery life of 10 years. While it’s unclear how we’ll remember to change the smoke alarms in ten years, we have a good block of time to figure it out.

Recent advancements in smoke detection technology have produced a ceiling/wall-mounted smoke alarm with a 10-year battery. You can connect this alarm with others through radio frequency, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi — that means if one device sounds the alarm, they all join in simultaneously.

These new alarms are available in all chain retail outlets and your neighborhood hardware store.

Protect Your Home from Electrical Fires – Schedule an Inspection Today!

Following these simple tips will help keep you and your family safe. If you’re worried your home’s electrical system isn’t in the best condition, contact Lippolis Electric today for an inspection. We are a family-owned business with 40 years of experience, serving Westchester, Putnam and Duchess counties. Our team has the skills to spot early warning signs of potential electrical failures and provide an efficient, long-lasting fix to minimize fire risk in your home.