sonichufan said:
William needs to shut the fuck up
Agreed. And not just for the reasons you give.
but if Chris's house was built in the 80s generally it should be protected by a GFCI which would automatically shut down the circuit if it detected that. [… etc.]
14BLC was built in 1977. The NEC started requiring GFCIs in bathrooms in 1975, but I don't know when Virginia adopted that in its own code book. If there was a GFCI in the bathroom, it was very likely original, a crappy Class B, and hasn't been tested in a loooooong time (if ever), so how much protection it still offered in 2013 is questionable. Also some older GFCI's required the circuit to be derated and this wasn't well understood back in the '70s when GFCIs were relatively new, but this usually wasn't a problem in a bathroom circuit with single short term (albeit heavy) loads like razors or at most a hair dryer (it wasn't until 10 years later when GFCI started being required in kitchens that it became a big issue). Regardless of the outlet type though, outlets do wear out over time, and 36 years is more than long enough to start getting bad, arcing contacts in any outlet.
I'm fairly confident 1977 was also before the 20 amp circuits started being required to bathroom outlets in Virginia, so the bathroom outlets in 14BLC are most likely supplied by 15 amp runs. Even worse, aluminum wiring was still being used in some places in 1977, and if it was in place in 14BLC (real estate sites say "unknown" - never a good sign), it's also highly unlikely the Chandlers took any steps to ameliorate that either.
There really are a lot of unknowns about this fire, and will continue to be until someone goes into the Greene Country offices and requests the fire report.
What we do know, though, is some Keurig coffee makers can draw very heavy instantaneous loads. Upwards of 12 amps for some models, which is pushing the bleeding edge of what is allowed on a corded appliance on a solid 15 amp circuit. Kuerig gets away with this because most coffee makers go into kitchens, and most U.S. kitchens are required to have dedicated 20 amp circuits or better for counter top appliances (among other rules). I would not be surprised if instant gratification Chris happened to have one of these fast boil, high current models. Regardless of what coffee maker he did have, instead of plugging it into a 20 amp kitchen circuit (which he no doubt couldn't reach because of the hoard), Chris plugged it into an accessible 36 year old 15 amp questionably GFCI protected bathroom outlet that may have been supplied with aluminum wiring.
Is anyone still surprised or confused about the subsequent fire?
(I wouldn't be surprised if Keurig products start including warnings about proper house wiring - if they don't already.)
Chris' house wasn't new enough that it would be protected by arc fault breakers, which could have prevented this from happening if it was a wiring issue, but they're so expensive that I doubt anybody in this thread or that William idiot has them (unless they are living in a house post-2006, even then until I think 2009 or 2012 they only protected bedroom circuits)
Arc faults wouldn't have made a difference in any case at 14BLC because bathroom outlets are one of the few places where arc faults are not required even in the most recent AFCI-happy NEC revisions. As of 2008 the NEC requires AFCI for "all residential living space outlets and fixtures" which means pretty much everywhere that doesn't require a GFCI (such as bathrooms).
