Introduction
Recently, in print media, there have been reports that some types of Christmas trees are having problems of becoming defective easily to the point of causing fires in the living room. Upon the request of one of the victims of this kind of Christmas tree, the author conducted an investigation to identify the cause of a certain living room fire due to a defective Christmas fire. The study was to consider both user related causes and defective product related causes. User-related causes can include, mistake of leaving a child to play with a candle, intentional fires, poor wiring and installment of decorative lights. Defective product-related causes due to poor manufacturing can include cord or plug failure. The study was done with a view to identifying possible original point of fire so that necessary steps are taken to prevent such like accidents in future. In this regard, while cooperating with the homeowner, the investigator was to identify and analyze likely sources of ignition. Notably, it came to the attention of the investigator that the fire occurred on and around the Christmas tree; most of the damages were seen on the Christmas tree itself.
Description of the Fire Incident
The Christmas tree being used had been lit by electric power. According to the US Fire Administration, Christmas trees have reputations of sparking electrical fires, especially when there are electric malfunctions. The Christmas tree becomes more hazardous when it is dry. The Christmas tree in the family room caught fire which spread to other parts of the house.
Apart from the Christmas tree, other items were also damaged. The fire effects spread from the family room to other parts of the house such as living room (see appendix B: Figures 6-8).
Analysis of the Incident
The technique used to create a blinking nature of Christmas tree lights involves installing a special blinker bulb at certain position in the strand. The bulb usually has a bi-metallic strip, and the current runs through it to light the filament. If the filament becomes hot, the strips bend and break the current, extinguishing the bulb. After cooling, it will bend back to reconnect so that the bulb relights, and the cycle to continue. However, if the string of lights has worn out or broken cords or bulbs that are loose, one should expect sparks. The sparks can easily cause the spark related fires. Further, if lit candles are used to decorate the tree, accidental fire can also occur, for instance when the candle is hit. The cause of fire due to electric malfunction is short circuits. A short circuit occurs when a live wire connects with a ground or common wire leading to a circuit getting energized. If a circuit is well fused, the fuse can blow for the circuit to de-energize. This situation could create sparks, which may get easily combustible items like leaves of a dry Christmas tree. However, if the circuit does not have a fuse, it will be evident that the current will continue to pass causing the wires to overheat to the point of igniting the surrounding combustibles. The other possibility is that of limited short circuit. If the volume of materials that have current is smaller than the fusible link in which they pass, the materials can over heat, melt and cause sparks. If these sparks get materials that can easily support initial ignition, so that self-sustaining exothermic oxidation reaction is assured, there will be fire. Given that there were such materials in the family room such as wood chips (walls), dry leaves of the Christmas tree and papers, there was an easy chance for the fire begin.
It is evident that the fire could have begun due to short circuits at the point of the Christmas tree. It seems that those that installed it did not consider the best distance that the tree was to be placed from the point connection to the power line (see appendix A: Figure 2; appendix B: Figure 8). One cannot say that the fire ignition could have been caused by external sources such as lightening, because codes from other parts of the room or the house were not burnt to show that they were involved (see appendix A: Figure 3). It is possible that due to worn-out wires, there was a short circuit which resulted in sparks or wire overheating. The sparks or ignition from wire overheating resulted into fire (see appendix A: Figure 1).
The Likely Effect of Candles
Ignition Scenario
It is evident that short circuiting occurred at the point where wires from the main power receptacles got worn out and burnt (see appendix A: Figure 1). These wires had been covered by the branches and leaves of the Christmas tree. The short circuiting resulted in ignition and initial fire in the family room (see appendix A: Figure 2). Given that dry leaves of the tree and surrounding wood chip wall and oily leather were easily combustibles, the fire spread to other parts of the building easily. The easily combustible wood chip wall was the key reason why the fire could spread to the living room.
Floor Plan
Despite large and more than two main entrances it could be noted that the floor plan also provided for windows as alternative ways of escape, as they could easily be opened. This was the case for each room (see appendix C: Figure 11 and Figure 12). It seemed that every member was aware of the escape plan. However, it seems that the building’s interior doors could not be closed to prevent the fire from spreading to other rooms due to combustible walls. There were a lot of combustibles in the living room such as books and furniture in the kitchen and living room (see appendix B: Figure 5).
General Recommendations
In order to avoid such accidents in future, there should be regular inspections and repairs by professional persons to ensure that, defective cords and other electrical parts are repaired or replaced so that they do not result in fire accidents. People should be urged to buy Christmas trees that are still green. The trees should be kept fresh by watering to reduce chances of fire initialization and spread. Candles should never be used to decorate the tree. The tree should be placed away from the likely points of ignition, for instance by 3 fits apart (Gorbett and Pharr 320-330). One should also ensure that sockets are not overloaded. Safety in the family should ensure that electrical blankets do not wear or get damaged and they are used according to the manufacturer’s instruction. The Christmas tree has to be switched off when not in use. Despite ensuring that there are fire extinguishers, the house floor plan has to have a minimum of two escape routes in case of fire. These escape routes have to be clear (New South Wales Fire Brigade 1-16).
Works Cited
Gorbett, Gregory E. and Pharr, James L. Fire Dynamics. 1st ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson, 2011. Print.
New South Wales Fire Brigade. Fire Safety and Prevention in the Home. Sidney, Australia:
NSW Brigade, 2008. Print.
Appendices
Appendix A: Points of Ignition and Initial Fire
Appendix B: Fire Intensity
Appendix C: Floor Plan
Figure 12: All rooms with larger windows for easier escape.
