How often do house fires happen these days?

[wanderings]

I'd like to think house fires are rarer than they used to be; not as many people smoke indoors as used to, and safety standards regarding electricity and furniture (all those "flame retardant" labels we have to remember not to cut off) are increasing all the time.

Does anyone in insurance or fire know what causes house fires mostly nowadays? Is it candles, smoking, electrics, cooking? I'm just curious, and it's something I used to worry about a lot as a child.

Tree I think a lot of people charge their phones under their pillow overnight, and they over heat. I think some cheap versions of chargers have known to be a bit dodgy too.

This is so scary I didn't think fires could start like this these days :(

Yes I think cheap dodgy Chinese chargers aren't good. It's worth getting a proper Sony/Samsung/Apple one even if they cost more. Or at least an Amazon own brand one which is to British standards. Not something imported from China for £2.

dasies. Your dehumidifier fire scares me. We have one running 24/7.

My parents house went on fire in the day - sister left a cigarette burning and a curtain caught. Took 8 months to repair.

2 days after they moved back in, a neighbour's house went on fire at 2am. No fire alarm so was well ablaze before they knee about it :( stupidly heroic efforts from my dad, brother and a few neighbours got the 3 occupants out alive but the house was destroyed. Burnt right through from the lounge to the roof. Took over a year to rebuild it.

We had one a couple of years ago on Christmas Day- a tray of fat caught fire because our old oven started sparking

How would you know your wiring was faulty?

You can get an electrician to do an electrical safety report. A DIECR checks the safety of the wiring. Usually landlords get this done on their properties every 5 years but there's nothing to stop you doing it for your own home.

Narrowly avoided one the other day - the Xbox cable must have been damaged at some point as it started to melt and smoulder. Fortunately DS spotted it and quickly isolated it. It was plugged into a surge protector which hadn't tripped, which was a worry.

I'm a bit paranoid now about shutting everything off, although I haven't run dishwashers / tumble dryers etc at night or while I'm out of the house for years.

I had a laptop (an expensive Dell one) suddenly spark and go up in flames on my lap a few years ago. I've never been so scared as it went so quickly. It was a recognised fault with this type of laptop as a safety recall had been announced but I hadn't seen it and Dell never contacted me.

Cheap phone chargers are a problem, and I'm hearing of fires caused by charging e-cigs aswell now.

Smoking and dodgy electrics

mate had a house fire due to a bit of dodgy wiring.
there was no indication that the wiring was anything other than ok (her husband is a surveyor!).

Informal your surge protector wouldn't have tripped for that. They are designed to protect from surges from the mains. That said you should check anything electrical including extension cords and such have proper CE markings and British Standard kite mark.

I think people don't realise sometimes that we are less protected when we shop online. If you buy a product from outside the EU - and it's not always clear this is the case - look out for long delivery times or high delivery charges, as well as China/Hong Kong in the correspondence address etc, products sold outside the EU don't have the same requirements for safety testing etc, and they quite often run from the same factories which supply big companies like Apple. So products can look just as good at first glance but in fact they contain cheap or fake parts and are electrically or chemically unsafe.

Buy from physical stores, as these retailers can only sell products which conform to EU regs, or trusted brands or retailers online. Amazon is not a trusted retailer unless you know the brand or the product is sold directly from them. It's not always clear which are coming from a separate seller.

Bigclivedotcom on youtube has some alarming videos about cheap electrical goods sold online.

My parents house, a spark had got through the fire guard, gutted half the house. No fire alarms. Luckily no one home but cat died.

Fil recently left hot oil on or in oven, gutted the kitchen.

Such a scary thread. I already only run the tumble dryer if I'm awake and in the house. Usually run the dishwasher overnight but will be stopping that now!

I unplug kitchen things overnight but nowhere else in the house...should TVs etc be unplugged overnight ideally?

Thanks Bertie, should have thought about that (with it being a melted cable not a surge) - it's a Belkin so no worries about it being cheap rubbish.

I've always wondered why people would plug a £600 iPhone into a £2 crapola charger from China.

Electricians say that "electrical fault" is often used when the cause can't be determined. Very rarely, one is found and photographed, and the sparkles love to pore over the photos commenting on the age of the wires and the quality of workmanship and components.

RCDs are increasingly common, and will trip under some conditions that in the past might have caused a fire. PVC insulated cable has been used for about 60 years and is very rarely faulty, unlike old cloth and rubber insulation that is still occasionally found.

DH is a firefighter and most fires with fatalities have been started by smoking, often in bed. Drink plays a big part (nodding off while drunk, smoking) or cooking when drunk. Also phone chargers.

Recent 'bad' fires he's attended have been in houses without smoke alarms. I don't understand why some people still don't have them. The fire brigade install them for free. We have them in every room, except the kitchen (one is located right outside the kitchen)

I was talking to a firefighter a few months ago and he said that one of the most common cause of house fires now is coming home drunk of an evening and starting to cook something then just falling asleep/forgetting about it .

I've dealt with a lot of fires in my time, and apart from arson the main cause I see is smoking materials or electrical faults, cheap or fake electrical goods. For a while I saw a lot of fires caused by recessed light fittings, tumble dryer fires are the latest "hot topic".

There's often little you can do to prevent accidental fires (apart from not leaving electrical items working when you're out/asleep) but have working and well placed smoke alarms and an exit strategy sorted and known by everyone should mean you survive a serious fire.

Some great advice on this thread. I also read a great idea on here about leaving an empty double duvet cover near the window in bedrooms, so you can put small children in them and lower them to safety.

One cause I read about is the light in the understairs cupboard. Often it's a naked bulb and in a cupboard that people open rarely and then perhaps to chuck an old coat in there or a sheet post-painting session. The two are in contact and eventually a fire starts. It resonated with me enough to get the light fitting changed. Worth checking ....?

The fire statistics make for very sobering reading - this is 2014-15, the summary is very sad to read
There were155000 fire events attended by the fire brigade and 31300 were domestic fires. 36% of domestic fires were related to smoking or smoking materials. Those age 65+ are much more likely to die.

Good news that the number of fires has gone down. The table I found separates England wales and Scotland in parts but as an idea for England in 1980/1 44601 and in 2015/16 31 333. Of the 31333 28318 were accidental and 3015 deliberate. 229 people died in the fires.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-statistics-england-april-2014-to-march-2015

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/548447/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire0201.xlsx

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/548450/fire-statistics-data-tables-fire0202.xlsx

Sorry to clarify the first statistics are England only.

Stupid question but how easily do fires go through to next door?

I just had a look at the chart of causes
(page 6 on www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532364/fire-statistics-england-1415-hosb0816.pdf

Most fatalities: Smoking
Most fires: cooking

So where have people got the idea that it's mostly electrical faults?