It’s easy to ignore the warning signs when it comes to electrical safety but the consequences can be serious, if left unchecked.
The most recent electrical fire East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service were called to involved faulty wiring in the loft space of a property on Longhill Road, Brighton.
Crews were mobilised at 13:34 yesterday (14th March) and firefighters extinguished the fire, investigated the cause and provided advice to the resident, as well as a recommendation to contact a qualified electrician.
Make your home safer by carrying out a few simple checks, to give you peace of mind:
Regularly run these checks over your equipment
Plugs and sockets
Keep an eye out for the following:
- Hot plugs or sockets, scorch marks, fuses that often blow, or flickering lights - they are all are signs of loose wiring or other electrical problems
- Badly wired plugs- any coloured wires sticking out could come loose and debris could also get into the plug
- Are the wires held firmly in place inside the plug
- Overloaded sockets- plugging too many electrical appliances into one socket can lead to overheating
- Use sockets safely- it's better to use a bar adapter (multi-board) on a lead than a block adaptor
- Only use one adaptor per socket- don't plug one adaptor into another and try to keep to one plug per socket
Cables and leads
Are they:
Getting frayed and damaged - make sure the outer covering of all power leads is in good condition and replace if necessary?
- Badly positioned- they shouldn't be anywhere that they could be tripped over, or near water, cookers or other sources of heat?
- Running them under rugs or carpets where they can wear through without anyone noticing - position them elsewhere?
Fuses
When you're fitting or replacing a fuse, it's important to use the right fuse for the appliance to make sure the fuse doesn't overheat.
Check the manual or look for a sticker on the appliance to find out its wattage and then use the correct fuse:
- For appliances up to 700 watts, use a 3 amp fuse.
- For appliances between 700 and 1,000 watts, use a 5 amp fuse.
- For appliances more than 1,000 watts, use a 13 amp fuse.
Extension leads and adapters have a limit on how many amps they can take, so be careful not to overload them, to reduce the risk of fire.
Further information
Click here for information, advice and guidance on electrical fire safety or visit Electrical Safety First - The UK's Electrical Safety Experts
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