Circuit Breaker Question.

slumlord44

Had a fire in a rental mobile home Thursday. Tennant said she had a Glade plug in air freshener plugged into the outlet in the bedroom where the fire originated. Fire Department blamed it on the air freshener. Circuit breaker was tripped. My question is why in the hell did the circuit breaker trip AFTER the fire started? Wondering if I have recourse to the manufacturer of the breaker.

Don McManus

Glade thing caught fire, melted, and then shorted out the circuit?

montanajoe

what don said. spot on,the breaker functioned exactly as should have.

Chief Shaway

quote:Originally posted by Don McManus
Glade thing caught fire, melted, and then shorted out the circuit?

Sounds like the best answer to me.

slumlord44

That makes sense. I should have thought of that. Another view sometimes sees the obvious that we overlook.

booter_one

This is exactly why the code has changed and new home and remodels require arc fault breakers in all bedrooms. Don't know all the details, but very possibly had the rental had an arc fault, the breaker may have picked up the fault earlier, versus for waiting for a total melt down to trip the breaker. They have been around for about 8+ years. If you look around you should be able to pick them up for about the same as a GFI breaker. One of the few code changes that is worth the money. Hope this helps.[:)]

Ditch-Runner

thanks fellows . I learned something new today , looks like I will changing out a few breakers , you can never be too safe and a few dollars in breakers is a cheep insurance / upgrade

nmyers

The stories about the danger of Glade air fresheners are urban legends that have been circulating for 30 years. There is not now, nor has there ever been, a fire hazard caused by plug-in air fresheners. This has been extensively investigated by fire safety experts.

While firefighters may do an excellent job of putting out fires, only a trained & certified fire investigator can determine the cause of questionable fires. If the fire happened last Thursday, I am pretty sure that you don't have the investigator's report yet.

At this point, your only recourse is to your insurance company.

Fire Inspector Neal

jimdeere

When I was in the local fire department, we were told to never speculate on the cause of a fire. That's the inspector's job. If anyone asked, tell them "the cause is undetermined at this time."