ASP Fire CEO Michael van Niekerk emphasized that as the holiday season approaches, we urge homeowners to ensure that basic fire risk mitigation measures are taken when going out during the holidays. The massive load shedding currently implemented by the power company Eskom also complicates the situation.

If you plan to leave, it is best to conduct a proper fire safety inspection of your house before your family leaves. This will reveal any potential fire risk areas, enabling homeowners to develop and implement specific solutions. The main causes of home fires are faulty electrical outlets and old or outdated electrical appliances. In addition, worn out sockets that are not properly grounded may ignite combustible materials such as floors, curtains, and carpets. More importantly, homeowners often wire these electrical connections themselves.

Electrical appliances used for heating, cooking and lighting are also the main causes of household fires. It is important to regularly check whether all these connections are still intact. Simple precautions include not overloading extension cables and plugs, not turning on electrical appliances on a single plug at a time, testing leakage devices, and checking that plugs and wall sockets are safe and not overloaded.

Before going on vacation, just press the "Test" button to test the ground leakage on the switchboard (DB). Ground leakage is designed to cut off the power supply and cut off the circuit in the event of a short circuit. In the event of a short circuit, the faulty ground leakage will not trip, causing the cable to overheat, causing the plastic insulation to burn and causing a preventable fire.

Every household DB should include a ground leakage device and a properly rated circuit breaker to protect the circuit from damage when overloaded. Most homeowners believe that the circuit breaker will indicate circuit overload, but fail to assess the electrical load on a single plug point and whether they overload the wiring capacity of that plug.

As we all know, electric multi-plug extenders can cause fires when they are overloaded, because the current drawn through the adapter cable is higher than the current it is designed to carry. This may cause the overloaded wiring to overheat and cause the plastic insulation to catch fire. Plugging many different devices into the same adapter will exceed the maximum current rating specified by the extension cord.

In terms of load shedding, the fire risk is mainly due to accidentally turning on electrical appliances such as irons, hair dryers, cookers and heaters. After the power supply is restored after a power outage, these appliances are likely to be left unattended, because residents have either fallen asleep or may have even forgotten that they have been on.

Another problem is false trips, which can be best mitigated by ensuring that all electrical appliances are turned off during load shedding. However, make sure to leave a light to indicate that power is restored. False trips can damage electrical equipment and cause fires due to power surges.

This means that the oversupply of voltage, even within a fraction of a second, will usually damage sensitive digital and computer equipment and may cause a fire. In addition to load shedding, residents of Gauteng must also deal with thunderstorms. During thunderstorms, lightning can hit power lines and use them as pipes, causing equipment to explode and causing fires. This means that it is very important that all electrical or electronic equipment be equipped with surge plugs.

Another risk factor is the use of candles as a light source during load shedding. Once the power supply is restored, it needs to be extinguished immediately. Residents also need to make sure that the candles are in the correct position so that if they fall, they will not pose a risk of fire. All candles also need to be placed in appropriate containers.

Van Niekerk recommends that homeowners invest in a small fire extinguisher for the home and make sure that all residents not only know its location so that it can be easily used in the dark, but everyone in the home knows how to operate it effectively to cause a fire. Homeowners are increasingly choosing backup generator sets to supplement the grid power in the event of load shedding, but this will bring additional safety and fire risks. The generator set needs regular maintenance and maintenance so that it can be started immediately in the event of load shedding.

"For example, if there is a power outage and you turn on the generator set and find that it has no fuel, for example, the last thing you want to do is when the generator set is running or when the engine or exhaust is very hot, because doing so will pose a serious risk of fire. Because the generator set will cause fuel to burn,” Van Niekerk concluded.

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