Our House Almost Burns Down - ALMOST!!

 

So there was this smell in our house. I was walking around like a DOG sniffing the air and I couldn't figure out what the smell was or where it was coming from. We FINALLY determined that when the microwave was running for more than a few minutes, the smell would fill our kitchen and then immediately draft down the hallway and into the rooms.

In comes the electrician, who tests the outlets on the walls in our kitchen. It was discovered that the outlet that runs from our microwave was slowing BURNING through the insulation, and that it wasn't a matter of "if" the fire was going to start, but WHEN the fire would start. Our old microwave had recently died - I'm not kidding how old it was; my parents bought it in the early 70s and it went to Loyd and Whit after that, and then to Lane and me, where it died the good death after 30ish years - and we got a new microwave. The new one "pulls" so much more power, that the wiring, which had been holding it's own for the old unit, began to burn for the new one. And as it burns, something about electrons being forced though a smaller and smaller gap, making MORE heat, so it just gets hotter and hotter and hotter.....

Needless to say, we got it all taken care of. But we were given some warnings by our electrician that I thought I'd pass along....

Signs of wiring trouble are as follows:

  1. flickering lights
  2. "brown" lights (lights that come on, but are very dim - can be known as a "brown out" - as opposed to a "black out")
  3. heat on or around the outlet plate
  4. funky burning electrical smell

If you experience any of these signs, please call an electrician. Apparently the kitchen area is the biggest Danger Zone, because the appliances there "pull" more electricity than anywhere else in your house. BE ALERT!

Following are two photos of the insulator (is that the right word?) that was about to catch our house on fire. Pretty, right? :)

 

 

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