Just wanted to share a few interesting facts we learned from the forensics electrical engineer after the spent a day investigating our fire.

  • Car engines. Only about half of a car engine is made of steel. That

    My car trapped under the collapsed garage roof. Although the fire investigation was inconclusive, they suspect my car was at the root cause of the fire.

    was all that remained of my car’s engine as the rest of it melted. Those parts were aluminum, plastic and other material.

  • Number one cause of garage fires. Lithium batteries are by far the number one cause of garage fires right now, according to our investigator Most commonly, it is the result of a rechargeable battery that has been left plugged in overnight and it overheats.Screen Shot 2016-06-23 at 9.20.15 AM
  •  Melting point of copper. Copper wiring doesn’t melt until it reaches 2,000 degrees. I know this because the copper wiring had melted and the investigator couldn’t determine any electrical issues because there was nothing left.
  • Arc mapping. This is a technique used by forensic electrical enginers to find electrical faults or electrical arcs. Arc mapping assumes that when fire impinges on an electrical line  it will melt the wire insulation and cause an electrical fault at the first point that it reaches on the electrical line. Our garage got too hot and had too much damage to effectively do any arc mapping.

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