Fire Safety Journal, 6 (1983) 147 - 150 147

Letter to the Editor

Identification o f Electrical Sources of of fires is now well known. This may actually
Ignition in Fires bias attitudes to the extent that less experi-
enced investigators would misinterpret post-
fire evidence.
D. A. GRAY* and D. D. DRYSDALE In the U.K. approximately 6000 fires are
Department of Fire Safety Engineering, University of attributed each year to faults in electric
Edinburgh, The King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JL wiring. One mechanism t h a t is frequently
(U.K.) alluded to involves overheating and insulation
F. A. S. LEWIS breakdown, resulting in a short-circuit. Char-
Fire Investigation Unit, Metropolitan Police Forensic acteristic evidence for the latter is the
Science Laboratory, 109 Lambeth Road, London existence of beads of melted conductor where
SE1 7LP (U.K.) the live wire has touched neutral or earth.
(Received April 25, 1983) However, while it is possible for a fault condi-
tion to produce these features, the same result
is achieved if a current-carrying wire is
The primary objectives of a fire investigator exposed to flame. Short-circuiting will occur
are to determine where, how and when a fire as the insulation burns away. To the naked
started. Investigations are frequently time eye, there is no difference in the appearance
consuming, requiring experience, technical of the damaged conductors in the two cases.
background and a logical approach. Even a A series of experiments has been carried
lengthy examination can sometimes lead to out to investigate the possibility of distin-
inconclusive results, particularly with regard guishing between these two situations, the
to electrical sources of ignition. In m a n y cases objective being to develop a m e t h o d by which
the fire creates evidence which is capable of an investigator can determine whether or not
more than one interpretation. a short-circuit could have been the cause of a
fire. For this preliminary study, twin core
It is a cause for concern t h a t existing U.K. PVC insulated cable with stranded copper
Fire Statistics [1] are misleading on the conductors rated at 5 A was selected. Short
causes of fire. These indicate that about 30% lengths of cable (15 - 20 cm) resting on a
of all fires in buildings attended by the Fire wooden block were subjected to electric
Brigade arise as a result of faults in electrical overload conditions using an,apparatus similar
equipment or the misuse of electricity. Indeed to that used by Lawson and Fry [3] (Fig. 1).
electrical equipment appears to be the leading Overload currents were passed separately
source of fires in buildings [2]. The classifica- down the twin conductors (C1 and C2) which
tion of supposed ignition sources, however, were maintained at a potential difference of
appears to be too broad. Thus m a n y sources 240 V by a separate transformer (T3). This
represent abuses of electricity or appliances secondary circuit remained open until the two
rather than electrical faults p e r se: for conductors touched, when the ammeter A3
example, chip pan fires are included in this registered a current, preset by adjusting the
category if an electric cooker was involved. variable resistor R1.
The Fire Brigades who provide the data on It was found that, in agreement with other
which the statistics are based cannot devote workers [3, 4], very substantial overload
sufficient time to investigation. The statistic currents (approximately ~>35 A) were re-
that electrical equipment is the leading cause quired to generate sufficient heat to melt the
insulation and cause short-circuiting. The time
*Permanent address: Metropolitan Police Forensic to failure decreased substantially as the
Science Laboratory, 109 Lambeth Road, London current was increased (Fig. 2). The develop-
SE1 7LP, U.K. m e n t of flaming was by no means assured

0379-7112/83]$3.00 © Elsevier Sequoia/Printed in The Netherlands

 148

when short-circuiting occurred at currents less

than 50 A. There must be a sufficient flow of
flammable volatiles from the thermal degrada-

X.£ d o°oJ tion of the insulation at the m o m e n t the wires

touch. Under conditions of slow heating
(~<40 A) most of the volatiles may be driven
from the decomposing insulation before the
short occurs.
If the sample of cable is covered by a piece
of carpet, then conservation of heat promotes
the process: the higher fire load around the
cable also makes ignition to flame more
likely. Short-circuiting will occur at lower
currents but heavy overload conditions are
still necessary to cause a fire (/>30 A).
In contrast, it was found that short-
RI A3
circuiting could be induced at much lower
currents if a piece of the same cable was
exposed to fire. A few experiments were
carried out using the circuit shown in Fig. 3.
A short length of cable (~15 cm) was
Fig. 1. Circuit used t o o v e r l o a d t w i n c o n d u c t o r s 121
a n d C2. A1 a n d A2 are c u r r e n t t r a n s f o r m e r s , T1, T2 attached to a wooden board suspended 10 cm
a n d T3 are voltage t r a n s f o r m e r s a n d R1 is a variable above a small fire (20 cm 3 petrol burning in a
resistor. Petri dish). Short-circuiting occurred after

240

1/
180
o

TIHE
Is]

120
:\
60

0 3'0 :0 ;0
CURRENT [A]
Fig. 2. Results o f o v e r l o a d tests o n 5 A r a t e d t w i n flex. o, s h o r t circuit w i t h o u t fire; x, s h o r t circuit w i t h r e s u l t a n t
fire.
 149

VARIAC

Fig. 3. Circuit used for passing a low current through

5 A rated cable exposed to fire.

(a)

Fig. 4. Typical appearance of beads of melted con-

ductor at X36 magnification (40 A overload).

about 60 s when the insulation had burnt

away, even with the rated current of 5 A.
Pieces of molten copper were ejected from
the point where the conductors touched, (b)
leaving behind melted " b e a d s " at the ends of
Fig. 5. SEM photographs of the surface of the beads
the damaged conductors (Fig. 4). formed when short-circuiting occurs: (a) 50 A passed
These were compared with beads formed through 5 A rated cable (x360); (b) 5 A rated cable
under electrical overload conditions by carrying 5 A, but exposed to fire (X1450).
examining them under a scanning electron
microscope (SEM). Significant differences afford some degree of thermal insulation
became apparent at magnifications greater which will prevent the wire overheating
than 500. Typical examples are shown in significantly before the short occurs.
Figs. 5a and 5b. The beads produced by the The rectangular pock marks referred to
shorting of electrically overloaded wires above have already been noted in a sample
showed clear signs of square and rectangular examined as the result of a fire investigation
p o c k marks on the surface (Fig. 5a), quite by the Metropolitan Police Laboratory. The
distinguishable from the surface of a bead electricity supply to the building in question
formed under fire conditions (Fig. 5b). It is had previously been cut off b y removing the
possible that the rectangular markings are main fuses but p o w e r had been restored
evidence for the expulsion of minute crystals, illegally b y connecting a cable directly to the
formed during the period of resistive heating, mains input, thus bypassing the meters and
at the m o m e n t of shorting. Recrystallisation fuses. Circuits were therefore only protected
is known to occur if a copper wire is heated b y the substation fuses. Although the fire was
electrically to temperatures in excess of caused by the ignition of papers due to a
260 °C for a prolonged period [5]. If, on the radiant electrical heater, the cable serving the
other hand, the c o n d u c t o r is carrying a appliance had clearly suffered a prolonged
" n o r m a l " current and is exposed to an overload. During the fire the insulation had
external fire, the electrical insulation will burnt off this cable causing shorting and a
150

for determining if a fire was of electrical

origin. A study is planned and will include
examination of damaged conductors dis-
covered at scenes of fires.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to express their

thanks to Mr. J. Sheppard of the Department
of Electrical Engineering, Edinburgh Uni-
versity, for his advice and help in constructing
the apparatus described in Fig. 1, and to
Mr. J. Goodall for his assistance with the
SEM. David A. Gray is most grateful to the
Fig. 6. SEM photograph (×500) of the surface of a
damaged c o n d u c t o r found at the scene of a fire. (By Metropolitan Police for one year's leave of
permission of the Director, Metropolitan Police absence for study, during which this work
Forensic Science Laboratories.) was carried out.

considerable overload current. Melted beads

REFERENCES
were present on the remaining ends of the
conductors, examination by SEM showing
1 U.K. Fire and L o s s Statistics, H o m e Office, 1980.
pock marks similar to those referred to earlier 2 M. Sheldon, Where fires start in electrical equip-
(Fig. 6). ment, Fire Prey., 125 (1978).
Detailed experimental investigation is re- 3 D. I. Lawson and J. F. Fry, Fires of electrical
quired to establish the range of fault condi- origin, Proc. IEEE, 1 0 4 A (1957) 185, 531.
4 B. Beland, Consideration of arcing as a fire cause,
tions that can give rise to these distinctive
Fire Technol., 18 (1982) 188.
patterns. However this could be a useful 5 D. W. Levinson, Copper metallurgy as a diagnostic
m e t h o d of ascertaining whether a cable has tool for analysis o f the origin of building fires,
been subjected to an overload and the basis Fire Technol., 13 (1977) 211.