Faulty Wiring and Other Common Commercial Electrical Fire Causes

No one wants to deal with an electrical fire. Not only do they result in potential loss of life for your key employees, but also significant damage to your property and business assets crucial to operations. When an electrical fire occurs, you will be left fighting an uphill battle to restore proper function to your business or commercial enterprise.

On the other end of the equation are the electrical forensic inspections. A cause for your fire must be determined once insurance companies, regulatory agencies, and other legal entities get involved. Even if you do everything according to the “book,” you may still face civil and industry-related fines that can undercut your annual profits.

Let’s quickly review how faulty wiring and other common commercial electrical fires can begin so you are better prepared to protect your property and team when any incident occurs.

Where are Commercial Fires Most Common?

To put it simply, anywhere electricity is running in your building or on your property is susceptible to an electrical fire. The trick is knowing where they are more common than other locations. You need to inspect and consider locations like:

• Electrical Panels: Any of the power control centers, motor control centers, and programmable logic controllers will be a hotbed for connections that can spark a fire if overloaded or frayed wires.
• Transformer Rooms: The inclusion of high voltage always poses a greater risk of fire. This is especially accurate for oil-filled transformers that exponentially add to the fuel being burned.
• Cable Trays or Vaults: These are the sections of your property with extensive wiring. When overheated or left unattended for extended periods of time, the insulation, coverings, and connections can degrade.
• Motors & Drivers: If your property includes any heavy machinery that is dynamic or moves, they are immediate sources of potential ignition points.

While you’re at it, don’t overlook the typical sections of your property, like sub-boxes or hubs in the guest and worker areas. Any electrical failure analysis you have completed should be comprehensive enough to cover those high-risk areas in and out of your industrial areas.

What Causes Most Commercial Electrical Fires?

It certainly helps to know what is likely to cause an electrical fire around your property. That will be extremely important information for your system designer to rely on for any fire suppression strategies. While this is a not a complete list, it should offer enough insight to get you started.

• Overloaded Circuits: You probably remember a family member plugging in a hair dryer near an appliance and causing a fault in the electrical system. The same idea of overloading the circuit applies on a larger scale when looking at commercial applications. If you are using more energy than the circuit is rated to handle, you run the risk of overheating and potential fire.
• Outdated Equipment: Just like any other piece of machinery, you must maintain your electrical equipment. Frayed, kinked, or faulty wiring that has damage can and will ignite. On top of those conditions, if you have any environmental concerns like dust, airborne contaminants, or extreme humidity, you will have the perfect space for arcing and short circuits. Keep these areas clear of nearby materials and conduct regular audits to ensure you are safe.
• Arc Flashes: Speaking of arcs, you don’t want to place your equipment or team in serious danger. Whenever you have conductors with air gaps around them, be sure you are equipping team members with the proper protection to engage or disengage any switchgear. Anything that drops or causes a spark in this area can lead to an arc flash and severe subsequent damage.

The point is to be proactive in your vigilance against fires. We at Dreiym Engineering frequently give legal evidence and act as inspectors. In many of these instances, it is a simple overlooking of one of these root causes that leads to a massive commercial electrical fire. A bit of consistent maintenance and occasional walkthrough inspection goes a long way to boost your safety and security.

Commercial Electrical Fire Warning Signals

Saying you’re going to replace faulty wiring and actually get the job done are two different things. Running any commercial enterprise takes a lot of work, and you can forget essential things from time to time.

For this reason, you may want to be vigilant to some of the more regular warning signs of a potential commercial electrical fire. During our electrical forensic inspections, we recommend clients check for the following:

• Any added heat to an electrical panel or around a dynamic/motorized piece of equipment.
• If you smell unusual odors, especially slight burning around electrical equipment.
• Whenever breakers trip frequently, or you have to continually replace blown fuses.
• Unexplained or unscheduled power outages that only affect your specific commercial buildings.
• Sluggish performance of equipment, motors, and appliances on your property.

Whenever any of these clear warning signs crop up, you want to contact a professional team to provide electrical failure analysis sooner rather than later. The quicker you can address any underlying issues, the greater your protection against fire damage.

If you do suddenly experience a commercial electrical fire due to faulty wiring, old systems, or other incidents. Be sure to sound the alarm and evacuate personnel immediately. Most modern fire protection systems will do this for you automatically through remote monitoring and IoT (Internet of Things) sensor connectivity.

You should also notify the local fire department and your ERT (emergency response team). They will follow procedures of isolating current power outages and utilizing fire suppression systems to control the blaze so you and your team have more time to get to safety. Regular testing of these systems ensures you minimize potential damage, so schedule drills as needed.

Best Practices for Preventing Commercial Electrical Fires

Many businesses and industrial teams we visit around Texas or beyond operate in outdated buildings. This could be due to acquiring new properties or when preparing to upgrade an organization. Either way, there are some suggestions to proactively prevent commercial electrical fires.

Always implement regular checks and maintenance of electrical systems. This may be cleaning equipment, double-checking faulty wiring, and looking for regular wear and tear. Be sure to note systems that require updating as you do this inspection. Old and antiquated electrical equipment must be updated not only to your standards but also to local regulations and oversight.

If you can, train your personnel. This shouldn’t just be occasional fire drills, but inform them of emergency response plans. Having more eyes, ears, and noses walking through your commercial property is an advantage as it can help you detect any potential warning signs early, so be sure you have a notification and messaging system in place to streamline the information to decision-makers.

Finally, adhere to industry standards by implementing and maintaining fire suppression systems. A sprinkler system may be great for an apartment, but other commercial buildings require more in-depth solutions based on what you’re building, constructing, or managing.

How We Can Help

Our team at Dreiym Engineering has years of experience dealing with electrical forensic inspections. We are often called to help post any fire activity to find the root cause of an incident. However, we much prefer to proactively help clients by offering an in-depth report that helps better equip businesses and commercial operations against potential risk.

Keep your property and your team safe all year round, and give our team a call today. Our fire analysis and investigation services are just as powerful as consultations for preventative support. We want to help you have safe work environment so you can maintain operations.