Fire @ Work

Matt

Got a phone call Thursday night just gone 20:30 saying the fire alarm was going off, and they had evacuated the building. Fire brigade comes automatically as they are linked straight into the alarm system.

Cause: Electric Shower!

stu-2_2-sri

Jeez wat cause that faulty shower set it off

Matt

No idea why it happened, looks like half the electric motor has melted and taken the outer case with it.

Sjdickso

Thats bad, I presume it was put out before any fire spread.

Matt

Yeah, that's the aftermath. Looking at it now, I think it was still at the melting stage, but hadn't actually burst into flames

MikeS

looks like it is where the mains enters the shower hmm should have an emergency switch behind that / near the shower with a normal light switch / fuse on it incase these things happen- basically it is like having a power plug inside the shower nxt to the motor / heater but the fuse should be on emergency cut off

could be water entering the shower case shorting / fusing wires together

Matt

I think you are right in that water is entering the shower. When it was on, it was spraying slightly onto the main unit.

Matt

They have now replaced the show unit, and advised us to turn it off at the pull cord when not in use, as it looks like it had been left switched on for several years!

Din

Matt said:
turn it off at the pull cord when not in use, as it looks like it had been left switched on for several years!

Erm.... i am 200 miles away from home and i always leave my shower power supply on :eek:

Matt

Yeah, we do at home as well. TBH, I'm presuming that don't actually know what caused it, but they are just telling us to do that as a precaution. I've never turned ours off with the pull chord at home in the 5 years we've been in our current house.