Electrical Fire Causation and Origin Examined at June Luncheon Click on each photo for larger version |
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| Bill Haack, of Electrical Design & Testing Corp., gave a very informative, though impromptu, talk. | Guest speaker, Doug Wood, illustrates the grounds on which the case occurred. | EBCA President, Bob Tucknott, thanks Bill Haack for his very informative presentation. | EBCA Vice President, Karen Cowan, with Restoration Management Company. | Debbie Ginestar and Lenny Towle, working together at FRSTeam. |
Bill Haack gives a lesson in electrical engineering at June East Bay Claims Meeting “Roughly two-thirds of all fires are blamed on electrical (elements),” stated Bill Haack, in opening his discussion at the June 14, 2006 East Bay Claims luncheon meeting. Ultimately, he said, “25 percent wind up actually being electrical in nature”. Haack, a registered Engineer in California with Engineering Testing and Design, provides consultations for residential, commercial, industrial and utility electrical systems, analysis of electrical accidents and investigation of the origin and cause of fires. Pressed into duty as the speaker for this meeting, due to some minor miscues, Bill did a great job of educating the crowd. “One of the most common misconceptions,” he stated, “is that ‘arcing’ causes fires. Arcing,” he continued, “will only cause a fire if in extremely explosive situations.” He quickly went through a litany of potentially bad conditions and circumstances to be watchful for. He advised to “be smart about electrical ‘power strips’,” calling them no more than “plug multipliers”. If you must use a power strip, he said, make sure it’s appropriately rated to handle the appliances you’re feeding into it. Bill’s PowerPoint presentation was effective and entertaining. He demonstrated by diagrams how worn outlets malfunction, how “daisy-chaining” of circuits looks to an electrical expert, and how loose connections are a fire hazard. |
Thank You to All Our June |
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