Guess which subject has reared up again?

No prizes unfortunately and a few with an axe to grind

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Reply to
cynic
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NICEIC in Jan 2008 -

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Am I having a senior moment please or is there really a new push for Part P Police Powers?

PS as usual the stats quoted in Jan 2008 seem to have lumped in fires caused by appliances etc

Reply to
Robin

It would be priceless if someone here knew the statistics and posted them here, so that any letters had substance.

Reply to
Fredxx

The firemen who came to give us free smoke detectors seemed to think that toasters under kitchen cupboards and hanging tea towels on the rail on the front of oven doors were the most dangerous things - after smoking that is.

Can't quite visualise the oven door scenario, but I can vouch for the toaster one, as 'I' once set off the fire alarm in a B&B early one morning, and got the whole place out of bed, while I tried to get at the very short flex of the toaster to unplug it and get it out from under the cupboards it was near to setting fire to!

Well worth checking your own toaster is away from the cupboards before you trust the automatic ejector! And NEVER trust a cheapo one in a B&B/self-catering let.

S
Reply to
Spamlet

Extractor fan (seized bearing, no thermal fuse) Cooker hood fan (multiple causes) Kitchen towel on electric hob (no "hot" indicator) Old convector (black heat elements get dust, yellow hotspots, drip onto carpet) Iron left on (china syndrome, one is nearing centre of the earth as I speak, we are doomed) Tumble dryer element fire (lint filter does not stop some buildup, bonfire on elements) Tumble dryer belt failure fire (thermal cutouts should work) Electric blankets (electrocution or death-by-left-on more a concern) Microwave (not as common) Overloaded very old wiring due to GCH fire & convectors Idiot handyman

Toaster under kitchen cupboard is interesting. Bring back chyrsotile! Either that or staple gun a fire blanket to the underside of the cupboard.

We need kitchen fire detectors - not the almost useless "almost after the fact" heat alarms, plus auto-channel changes on TVs with wireless video camera are not a bad idea.

Reply to
js.b1

We're talking about Part P. So I was thinking of things relevant to domestic fixed wiring.

Reply to
Fredxx

Yebbut the statistics invariably quoted include... Fixed... Portable... Appliances... anything marketing can dig out without checking its validity and without justification re ASA. Fire Officers write "electrical" when no other cause may be found, where fixed wiring is unlikely to be the cause particularly with ever more houses having RCD protection.

We need EU lobbying to create 2 levels of charity - Defined Scope Charity & Full Scope Charity where only the latter has full charitable trust legal protection status and has no commercial interests, no fees, just DOES charity work, at low cost overheads subject to regular independent review.

Reply to
js.b1

I used to think electric blankets were for old fogies till we got one - in a cold house they're fantastic. High setting (100w?) is too hot to sleep, but if by mistake they're not switched off 1 or 2 can be ok.

Reply to
Clive George

Clive George wibbled on Thursday 29 July 2010 23:55

Was in the London Science Museum today with the sprogs. Down in the basement they have an exhibition of old appliances, including:

Many open element fires, one of which had the coil elements utterly unprotected save 3 horizontal guard wires about 3" apart.

How did we stay alive?...

My great aunt recalled an episode where she was hoovering the switched off electric fire, and there was a huge bang as the metal hoover tube shorted the mercifully earthed guard wires to the exposed element as the plug had live and neutral reversed and the switch was single pole.

The best one was the "sun bath" reflector-heater with inbuilt carbon arc lamp "because UV is good for you" - bugger all mechanical protection again, never mind the poor user's eyes!

Reply to
Tim Watts

I should qualify that. Many modern electric blankets are designed to be left on all night (heated wrap for use in a chair, heated duvet, heated overblanket). Many old electric blankets must not be left on all night due to heat output.

I forgot to turn off one of those old ones, 20yrs ago, and did wake up about an hour later bucket-soaked and feeling extremely ill. Had to strip the bed, wash the duvet & actually dry the mattress, ended up working through the night drinking water. With an elderly person the heat stress can cause cardiac failure, long time since I heard of such a death though.

Reply to
js.b1

Some electric blanket statistics from Fire Services...

Accident statistics DTI research shows that in 1996 faulty electric blankets caused more than 5,000 fires:

- There were 19 deaths (compared with 32 in 1985).

- There were 91 non-fatal injuries (compared with 438 in 1985).

- The majority of non-fatal injuries (76%) are minor in nature, usually involving smoke inhalation, and do not involve admittance to hospital.

- At least 99 per cent of electric blanket fires are believed to involve blankets that are more than 10 years old.

- 89 per cent of the people who died were over 65.

In tests carried out on over 50,000 electric blankets, 70 per cent failed safety tests, and 40 per cent were found unsuitable for further use.

Ownership

- Sales of electric blankets have fallen from over 1 million in the early 1980s to nearer 800,000 from 1990 onwards, mainly because many people have invested in central heating and double glazing.

- There are in the region of 10 million blankets in use in the UK. About 30 per cent of these are more than 10 years old (including around 500,000 over 20 years old).

Actually the argument about GCH & DG is erroneous, it is more engrained demographic usage and some people particularly with arthritis wanting to get into an obviously *heated* bed rather than one perceived as cold. I suspect the number of blankets at 20yrs old is higher and 15yrs old considerably higher.

Reply to
js.b1

Ah ok - ours aren't like that, they're the newer sort, though still an underblanket rather than duvet, overblanket or wrap. (plural because we let guests have one too :-) )

Oops. Worst that's happend with ours is woken up going "blimey it's a bit warm, bother, forgot to turn it off", turning it off and then going to sleep again. It's no worse than a warm summer night.

Reply to
Clive George

Brave man. I bet you slept well last night.

Reply to
stuart noble

I still remember the blisters I got on my hands from my first visit there as a child ... frantically winding those Van de Graaff generators and similar exhibits.

Reply to
Andy Burns

Andy Burns wibbled on Friday 30 July 2010 09:56

Sadly you can't zap yourself anymore :(

They do have some cool stuff like the washing machine that you can control the inlet water, hand crank the drum and the emptying pump.

And the cut-away bog that works with a *very* realistic looking plastic turd :)

The computers section is a bit naff for kids - perfect opprotunity to press hundreds of buttons and not actually much to do. And the enviro-bollocks zone is best avoided.

But the space section is very cool. Think they still have one of the Apollo capsules but I didn't get to that bit this time.

Know what the PP means, legs fell off after that!

And we dropped into to the National Gallery for 10 minutes as it's next to Charing X. Thanks to that recent Dr Who episode, the kids wanted to see some. People were clearly amused by a 4 and 6 year old avidly inspecting every painting in room 45 commenting that it "must be a van Gogh because of the wibbly swirly colours"!

And the fact that the "Sunflowers" didn't actually have "for Amy" written on it :)

Reply to
Tim Watts

When I last did a fire training course, which is probably 6+ years ago, fires in the home were due to smoking firstly, and chip pans secondly. Unattended TV's was also surprisingly high up the list. Wouldn't be surprised if the chip pan one had dimished, as I suspect deep frying in an open pan on the hob has probably dropped.

But the significant thing about electrical installation fires are they they mostly aren't due to poor installation workmanship, but are due to doing nothing when the installation badly needs working on. That's the point which is always (deliberately) missed by the likes of NICEIC, because it doesn't fit with their agenda.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

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