Natural curiosity

It is an unavoidable by-product of this profession that we (well, me at least) are often making observations of the mundane and routine to find potential fire risk. It helps form our knowledge and experience and, when examining actual fire scenes, it adds to our confidence when concluding the report.

It also helps to consider and evidence causes that are often only assumed or suspected (I will not stray into myth and legend!). For example, it is well known of course that cigarettes can cause fire and that they are frequently thrown from moving vehicles. It is not unreasonable to assume that there is a real possibility of a thrown cigarette landing on another moving vehicle and resting on combustible material. But has it been witnessed and tested?

Some years ago while servicing my own car I found a spent cigarette lodged in a recess behind the grille among dry leaves. Perfect proof of the potential.

Much more recently I was at my high street bank and noticed that the coax and power cables from a desktop computer monitor in use had severely chaffed against a cable tidy bracket. This was because the monitor was free to swivel to allow customer interaction with the adviser but the cable tidy was fixed to the support pillar arm.

The coax was chafed down to the metal. It was only luck that it had not been the power cable in close contact with the bracket. Also I noted that the power plug into the monitor was not anchored. This allowed the plug to flex in the socket when the monitor was pivoted around in use. The result would be a weakening of the contacts and further potential for fire.

If any reader has any photo of potential and unexpected fire cause then please send. Your experience will add to mine.

David