UK Re-energising after fire

[DPG]

A week? That's very optimistic!!

Always unpleasant to see a fire damaged house.

 

[ruston]

She says she wants the bare minimum to be safe and only fire damaged stuff but I won't sign it off until any C1/C2's have been remedied. I'm not taking the chance.
Source URL: UK - Re-energising after fire - https://www.electriciansforums.net/threads/re-energising-after-fire.183572/page-2

Bare minimum standard is probably indicative of the whole installation and condition of the property. Just do the EICR and give her the results . I would not be worrying about her opinions.
I admire your stance.

 

[Markyd]

As the Electrician you should be telling them what they need

 

[Pete999]

This type of scenario is not a new experience, Electricians have been dealing with flooded premises for Donkeys years, listen to the oldies they know best how to deal with this sort of thing.

 

[Zerax]

This type of scenario is not a new experience, Electricians have been dealing with flooded premises for Donkeys years, listen to the oldies they know best how to deal with this sort of thing.

yeah... where's Telectrix when you need him ??

 

[captaincaveman]

So I returned today to do an EICR...
And although I found many, many faults most of which seem to be pre-fire related (broken sockets, visible cables etc,,) I didn't find much wrong with regard to fire damage (with the exception of smoke damage on accessories and a melted pendant) The heat managed to get above the pendant bases, melting the odd connection block, but the conductors seemed fine. There is a split ring (live) on the upstairs sockets which I need to investigate further - though it would 'seem' to be in a bedroom rather than the landing.

I did however find 3 cables & 1 bonding cable under the top step where the fire was. Although they are directly below the fire, apart from some soot covering them, they didn't visually seem damaged and were still flexible without degredation. They also passed the continuity / IR tests fine. I'm still a little concerned though on how the heat may have damaged the inner insulation & conductors.

Any views anyone?

 

[freddo]

She says she wants the bare minimum to be safe and only fire damaged stuff

God I hate that sort of mentality. I wouldn't give her the time of day, let alone do work for her. Is the insurance company not paying to repair the damage?

 

[westward10]

Looking at the charring of the wood I doubt the cables below were affected. A wood floorboard of 10mm or above would be deemed thermally thick, in other words the lower surface probably remained at ambient temperature whilst pyrolysis took place on the upper surface. Wood as a material does not burn, it is compounds being released when it is subjected to a high enough temperature which then ignite resulting in charring. The ambient temperature at the time below the boards of course we do not know but you can only use your judgement.

 

[captaincaveman]

God I hate that sort of mentality. I wouldn't give her the time of day, let alone do work for her. Is the insurance company not paying to repair the damage?

Yeh, the insurance will pay I'm sure. But she asked me to do the least that's required to get the family back in - but only in relation to the fire damage.
I told her I won't energise the system (which I can't do at the moment anyway as I think the suppliers fuse has blown - no supply) unless I was happy that the whole installation is safe enough to do so. Which for me is anything C1, C2 to be fixed first. I'm not going to turn it back on for the kids to come back and stick their fingers in a broken socket fire damaged or not!

 

[ruston]

You said in you OP that the fire brigade had isolated the supply to the electrics.
Good luck with it anyway, at least no one was hurt.
The rest is just property.