Rising Fires in India : A quick guide to electrical safety for your homes and offices

New Delhi saw a 37% rise in residential fires compared to last year. Recent fire incidents in Delhi, and across India have highlighted the urgent need to address this issue. According to the fire department, almost 70 % of the fires occur due to short circuiting, wrong wiring, overheating and overloading of circuits. It has become extremely important to prevent these causes as this alarming fire increase has put human life at greater risk in India.

I’m writing this guide to help explain what causes electrical fires and how they can be prevented in homes and offices in the future.?

What Causes Electrical Fires

Let’s start by understanding the key parts of an electrical system that play a vital role in short-circuits.?

To put it simply, an electrical circuit has three parts.

1. Load—Your appliances, lighting, ACs, or anything you want to run on electricity. The load pulls current from the supply to run. A failure in such devices can cause short-circuiting of the system, which can cause sparking and fires.
2. Wiring—Wires are like pipelines that connect loads to the supply. They are protected with insulation, but if the insulation gets damaged, the conductors of 2 wires may touch, causing a short circuit. This short circuit is what leads to a sudden influx of current, which can lead to sparking and fires.
3. Protection Devices—These are devices like MCBs that trip and stop the current flow in case of short circuit or overloading. An MCB is defined by its tripping time, which is based on the amount of excess current. In case of a short circuit, it must trip immediately(approx 0.1 sec), and in case of overloading, the tripping time may vary from 1 minute to 1 hour, depending on the overload percentage.

When a short circuit occurs, excessive heat is generated, which can ignite nearby combustible materials and cause a fire.

A fire will typically occur when the following conditions are met:

1. An electrical device fails, causing a short circuit or overload, and the protection device doesn’t trip
2. The wires supplying current short circuit due to insulation damage or extended periods of overload currents, and the protection device doesn’t trip.

This implies that to prevent a fire; both commercial and residential buildings must have good-quality appliances, wiring and protection devices.

I know that this seems pretty obvious, and you may wonder why the fires have increased suddenly. All the equipment is the same as it was until last year, so why the exponential increase in fires?

The answer lies in the phrase “Margin of Safety.” Every electrical system is designed with a margin of safety and can sustain many deviations from the norm. However, extreme situations often push the system to an edge, leading to system failure. In this case, it’s causing more fires in India.

High temperatures have been one factor pushing moderately designed systems to their extremes, leading to fires.

We cannot control environmental factors while building homes and offices, so we must maintain our margin of safety to avoid such failures in the future.

Overloading circuits is like fitting too many people into a small elevator. It's unsafe, and the elevator's load-bearing capacity soon reaches a limit. Plugging multiple high-power appliances into one socket can cause the circuit to overload, resulting in a fire.

Six Steps Every Commercial & Residential Building Must Take To Prevent Fires?

Let’s discuss the steps you can take to reduce the possibility and damage of such fires.

• Run inspections: Hire a qualified electrician to inspect your home and office wiring and other devices regularly. This can help detect possible failures beforehand.
• Avoid Overloading Power Strips: Use power strips wisely and avoid plugging too many appliances into one socket. Every socket is designed for a particular load; pushing it beyond that can cause overloading. If ,by any chance, the protection device doesn’t trip, it can start an electrical fire.?
• Hire Certified Professionals For Installation: Ensure all electrical installations are done by certified professionals, as wiring can also be damaged during installation. It can be tempting to go for DIY solutions like taping wires or opening MCBs yourself or asking maintenance staff to run small tasks. Always reach out to a certified professional when it comes to electric safety.
• Turn off appliances: Unplug appliances when not in use to reduce the risk of electrical fires.
• Fire safety equipment: Install fire extinguishers in your home to prevent damage in a dire case. Fire trucks try their best to reach you as soon as possible, but India is notorious for traffic jams, and having a fire extinguisher handy at all times can save lives. s.?
• Invest In high- quality materials: Use high-quality wires, cables and MCBs. Wires should have lower conductor resistance and higher insulation resistance. MCBs should work for both Short circuit and Overload tripping. Many subpar MCBs do not trip in case of overload in the required time frame.?

Following these simple precautions can significantly reduce the risk of electrical fires in your home or workplace. When it comes to fire safety, Prevention is always better than cure.

To make safety audits and inspections easier for buildings, I have attached a checklist for preventive checks of electrical systems. You can download it by accessing the link below.??

Download the Electrical Health Checklist

I hope that you found this guide helpful. Please forward it to spread more awareness of what steps Indian citizens can take to keep themselves safe at home, in schools, and offices.?