Elec blow out

[goldenmeadow]

Hi,
In my kitchen there is an elec box on the wall
on left a red switch saying cooker,. on right another red switch and a 3 pin socket.

We have a gas cooker now and use the socket for the plug into the gas cooker to light the
rings and oven

Another use for the socket once a week is to plug in the washer to do a wash
then the cooker plug is put back .

On wed I heard banging from the kitchen and there were flashes.

I went in to see the elec box black ....... the plastic plug ( for the cooker ) black and half melted
the fuse completley burned up.

All I can think is that the plug had been arcing......... maybe the plug was nt pushed in far enough..
.............though I doubt that ...........

The elec box is a mess, it will have to be replaced with a double electrical socket .

But its scary that such a thing should happen out of the blue....... I dare say if it had been nearer to a curtain or something, it could have started a fire.

Luckily nothing in the system seems to be affected, all lights work... all plugs still work


'.

 

[micknew]

Yes seen it before, carbon tracking on the bar of of a rewirable consumers unit.

 

[goldenmeadow]

When you think about it...... there on the wall... above the stove.... is a foolish place
to put an electrical socket........getting the cooking... steam from boiling potatoes...
the heat from the oven............ its in the wrong place!

Its 40 years old too, maybe inside, some wire has perished
and begun to arc..... the heat from that has blackened the plug
and burnt out the fuse....

I cant take a look inside until I turn off the juice from the house, which I wont do until Ive got a new double socket.. with switches.... to replace the old one.

 

[trev]

If it's a council house get on to them as soon as possible, they even have emergency teams who will come out and have a look at the problem. If you own the place you need to get an electrician in to carry out an inspection and test of the installation.
If you post up your location I'm sure one of our members will be near you and can come to help. If the installation is 40 years old it's probably worth warning you that it has probably reached the end of it's safe useful life.
Please don't go poking around inside anything, it's not a good idea

 

[sparks1973]

trust me on this....get an electrician in...
given the characaristics of BS3036s (i assume thats the circuit protection thats being used here)..you cant be sure as to wether the cable has suffered damage as a result of this.....an electrician will of course be able to verefy this...before new fronts go on....

 

[Knobhead]

To quote Jeremy Clarkson. “I despair, I really do”.

The council will take an interest when you’ve burnt the house down. Do as has been suggested, get someone in that knows what they are doing.