extension cable advice needed please

Hey all, id appreciate some advice on a new extension cable after a fire incident this morning at 5am! Thank goodness my gym buddy was 10min late this morning or i would have come back to a burnt down house! I have no idea how or why my extension caught fire this morning as the stuff that's connected to it wasn't turned on at the time and even more confusing is why the plugs caught fire.

So my situation is that i need to power the tv etc but the power socket is on the other side of the room, having a new power outlet installed is NOT an option for me unfortunately. The distance i need to get from the power outlet to the tv etc works out at 7m to run along the skirting. Unfortunately from what i can see at currys/screwfix i won't get an extension that long.

I was using one of these to go from the power outlet to where the tv is:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-heavy-duty-extension-lead-1g-240v-10m/44635 well not this blue one but the orange one by masterplug.

from the above extension i had my 6 gang extension connected to it and then all my equipment connected to the gang.

So i would like to know what is the safest way for me to do this.

dagsky said:

So my situation is that i need to power the tv etc but the power socket is on the other side of the room, having a new power outlet installed is NOT an option for me unfortunately. The distance i need to get from the power outlet to the tv etc works out at 7m to run along the skirting.

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Well if my house had nearly burnt down I would find someway to make it an option. What is the problem? Cost? Rental property?

Have you considered moving the TV to near the power socket?

Or how about paying a qualified electrician to make up a 7 metre extension lead?

That melted burnt thing in the picture.
I guess that is a 13A plug?? Where was that plugged in? was it the plug connected to the power socket in the wall, or was it the plug for your 6-way extension thing?

I think we need some more information here about how this happened. Under normal circumstances, a 10m 13A extension cable running light loads such as TV equipment should be perfectly fine. Given that the equipment in question wasn't even in use at the time, the standby current should have been only a few milliamps.

So the fire can really only be the result of some kind of fault, or perhaps some physical damage to the connectors.

dagsky said:

the stuff that's connected to it

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What is this stuff?

photos of the connector at the other end, and of any damage to the cable (such as a nail hole, crushing or abrasion) would be interesting.

The photo is the plug from the short 6-way extension (black lead) plugged into the socket of the long single-socket extension (orange lead), right?

Presumably one or other was damaged or faulty.
Or possibly an attached appliance was faulty and taking much more current than it should - but that's less likely.

the orange cable was a 1 gang trailing extension which was connected directly to the power outlet on the wall, on that trail extension i had the 6 gang extension connected to it (black cable). Both of these had their cables out of the way from foot traffic as i had them in the cupboard under the stairs. Neither of these were surge protection so i'm not sure if a surge protector would have stopped this in the first place. Connected to the 6 gang was a 42" TV, sky box, xbox, amazon wait for it, firestick!! All appliances were on standby. I wouldn't be able to say which of the two caught fire first though. Before this happened though, in the evening a fan heater was connected to the 6 gang and switched off at bed time but not disconnected from it. I do recall hearing a popping sound whilst i was getting changed and didn't think much of it and thought it was probably falling in the bathroom, went downstairs and made a cup of coffee and about 5 minutes later i smelt something burning and then heard that same popping sound followed by a strong smell of something burning and thats when i went to investigate.

So today i've learned to never plug a heater or any heavy duty appliance into anything other than the wall, and daisy chaining extensions is a no no! I am very surprised though that my smoke alarm did not react to this at all and it's supposed to according to what i remember and i tested on sunday so it does still make a noise but obviously doesn't work very well (kidde smoke alarm and co)! Which brings me on to my next thought, in the event of a fire and you're upstairs and can't make it down the stairs, well in my case the stairs would have been on fire, how on earth is one supposed to get out if you have small windows??

Daisy chaining extension cables isn't of itself a big deal, provided that they're in good condition and only lightly loaded.

Adding a high load appliance such as a heater to the mix is a bad move though, especially if the connections at the plugs and sockets are a little worn, loose, or in any way less than perfect.

Yeah agreed heaters etc should only ever plug into the wall. The only problem with lots of extension leads is no one checks the loop impedence when they plug them in so you never know if the fuse will actually protect the circuit.
To the op glad you found it in time! Sounds like the heater use melted something which didn't cause a problem into the morning for some reason. Lucky escape. And now you know why building regs require all non ground floor windows to be escapable from, or a protected escape route provided.

yup i'm just thankful that it happened when i was awake and for once not ****ed that my gym buddy was late this morning! Think i need to look at some of those pointy hammers that break glass and attach them to the sides of windows in all the rooms upstairs. Still though with buildings regs requiring a window you can escape from, how on earth are you going to jump out the window or throw a kid out the window?

dagsky said:

how on earth are you going to ... throw a kid out the window?

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It's easy.

Trust me of the room behind you is full of smoke you'll find a way to jump out! Also they allow fire fighters to get in as well. They only apply basically to your first floor, loft conversions are usually too high to need an escape window.

Interesting thread.

This is in no way helpful, but I'm at home ill and bored.

I got a call to check the electrics from a landlord who was panicking after a small electrical fire in one of his properties. The fire was blamed on some burnt electrical cables in the area of the fire. After a bit of investigation it was clear the fire couldn't have been started from the wiring, the only damage to the cables was a bit of scorching on the outer sheath. The fire looked to have started on a shelf near the wiring. Overhearing a phone conversation outside between the tenant and a relative confirmed the fire started after a lit candle was placed on the shelf, this then set fire to the shelf that was only 6 inches above the one with the candle on. Another electrical fire that wasn't, added to the fire statistics.

dagsky said:

All appliances were on standby. I wouldn't be able to say which of the two caught fire first though

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An appliance fault is more likely, what were the 2 things that caught fire?

Edit I just re-read it, the 2 things were the plug and trailing socket.