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FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => Fire Safety => Topic started by: lyledunn on December 12, 2013, 07:18:12 PM
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Perhaps it is just one of those things, but I was recently instructed to carry out a survey of electrical installations following the importation of voltage transients on no less than three separate occasions. Two incidents involved indirect effects of lightning and the other was caused when a 275KV overhead transmission line fell on an overhead low voltage distribution line. In all cases there was significant damage, and in all cases there was a fire. The fires, however, were not sustained and seemed to quickly extinguish.
Interestingly, in the latter case, one of the many installations effected had just fitted surge protection. The surge protection devices disintegrated and the enclosure they were in exploded. Nothing but a charred mark where the devices were located was left. The installation was mostly saved unlike adjacent installations where no SPDs were fitted. Here cables were burned back along their lengths for some distance and although there is evidence of an incipent fire in every case, the fires must have snuffed out.
I was wondering if, with the ever increasing use of electronic equipment in installations, might there be some worry from the fire risk perspective?