Fire!

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
34,096
Little excitement last night at titanic II. And something I really didn't need right now.

Around 8pm Yangdu said she smelled smoke in the bedroom and she did. I went outside to check and sure enough could smell smoke coming from underneath the trailer. Called 911 and fire dept. was here in two minutes (station two blocks away). Electrical short was cause. Minor damage. This old dinosaur has aluminum wiring. Connection (mickey mouse set up to transfer electricity from one side of trailer to the other -- double wide.) failure. I have it jury rigged so have power today but none last night including phone.

This incident should have tripped a circuit breaker but didn't. Electrician coming over next Tuesday to try to find out why. Seems electricians are as busy as doctors -- but that's another story.

Keeping an eye on my fix. No warm wires as yet.

Stay tuned.
 
Most important, You and Yangdu are safe. Don't suppose you slept too well last night, thinking about it. Be Safe.

SMOKE ALARMS, although Yangdu's nose did a good job.........

Best

Dale
 
might be cheaper to buy a couple of new circuit breakers.
It's rare for them to go bad without cause,
but it does happen.
I'm guessing that it has the replaceable circuit breaker switches.

RE old aluminum wiring------
You might check to make sure of laws RE electrical work.
We had a plumbing problem that revealed something
(unrelated to the problem) that did not meet code.
Plumber told me he could potentially lose his license
if he did not bring everything up to code.
Gave us choice of doing all or none.
Suspicious, so called another plumber in & same story.
You never know.
 
Better double check all the electrical wiring. Sometimes, rats or some other critters with sharp teeth nibble on them, and that can cause some problems.
 
Sometimes, rats or some other critters with sharp teeth nibble on them

We have had a rat around recently and you could be dead right.
 
Circuit breakers are more for the protection from a short circuit than for overcurrent protection.They are not nearly as reliable as fuses for overcurrent or short circuit protection for the most part.Also a bad connection can heat up without there being an overcurrent or short circuit,so the breaker may be fine.It would be best if you could have all the aluminum wire replaced.Every connection is suspect and needs to be checked for overheating/propper torque.Thank the Lord you caught it before it got worse.
Praying for the best for you,
Mike
 
Some of those old trailers were put together with real cheap materials. My friend had a double wide that had flimsy plastic tubing as plumbing, and the roof was sheathed with thin paneling!
 
O
D
T
A
A

( Translation: One Darned Thing After Another. Ain't that the truth? )
 
I had a trailer with that damned aluminum wiring back in the early '70's. One mistake I made and that a lot of people make with the aluminum wiring is using standard copper wiring application connectors with it. The AC current causes the wires to vibrate and if you use non-aluminum grade connectors that have screws to tighten down the wire hte wires vibrting will cause the screws to eventually loosen and cause even more problems. The spring loaded devices are supposed to be used, but they even wear out over time as the heat generated eventullay weaken the springs. Either way you're screwed with aluminum wiring.:grumpy:
 
... do not even know anything of aluminium wiring - maybe I was to young when they were in fashion or they did not use it over here...

Glad you and Yangdu are safe.

Andreas
 
Glad to hear the two of you are safe. If the Electrician's schedule is like a Doctor's, wait 'til you get the bill. Of course, this is a good justification why the bills are the way they are.
 
Be careful of aluminum wiring, aluminum has a much higher thermal expansion factor than copper. As it heats and cools it has a tendency to swell and shrink and loosen connections.

Stay safe.
 
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