Ravages of an electrical fire- East Wenatchee and Chelan Home Inspection

During a home inspection a few weeks ago there was a grim reminder that electrical wiring issues can have grave consequences. This home had an electrical fire that ended up taking someone's life.

Fire dynamics can be very interesting and in this home I was able to see how they played out. The fire started in a closet then filled the home with smoke and heat.

As the heat built up an interesting thing came into play. The front room had two plexi-glass skylights. The heat from the fire melted those skylights and actually started to vent the fire to the exterior roof. When fire fighters come onto a structural fire one of the common practices is to cut vent hole into the roof to do the exact same thing these skylights did.

I could now follow the fires chimney effect throughout the home and you could see where the home had some poor energy design causing air flows.

Another thing that was interesting in this particular fire was the occupant had gun powder in the bedroom. When this exploded it moved the wall about a foot into the living room. Here is that wall. Notice the smoke line.

If there is ever in a fire in your home one of the thing you should remember is that heat rises. You always stay close to the floor. The temperature between the thermal layers can be very extreme (fire fighters refer to this as rollover). At the floor, though it may be hot, you will survive if you stood up you would stand up into a thermal layer that may be around 1300 degrees.

In this picture you see the marks of the firefighters as they moved up the structure. The smoke was so thick they use the walls to feel their way up to the next level.

Because of the way the fire played out in this home the actual fire structural damage was minimal, smoke caused the majority of the homes damage.

Ravages of an electrical fire- East Wenatchee and Chelan Home Inspection

NCW Home Inspections, LLC  is located in Wenatchee Washington serving Chelan County, Douglas County, Kittitas County, Okanogan County and Grant County Washington and the cities of Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Cashmere, Orville, Cle Elum, East Wenatchee, Quincy and many more...