Moisture sparks second house fire

A Hamilton man says he's lucky to be alive after moisture build-up in his underground power cable twice sparked a fire in his switchboard.

Ken Phillips wants to make others aware of the problem.

"I want to prevent a tragedy from happening," said the Whatawata Rd resident. "We were lucky. We could have been burnt alive."

Mr Phillips and his wife were asleep on the morning of June 21 when a switch in their electrical box blew and their ceiling caught fire.

A smoke alarm didn't go off because smoke was in the ceiling.

Mr Phillips woke to the sound of sparking wires and rushed outside to where the electrical box was attached.

"If I'd slept for five more minutes we would have been trapped inside because our room is on the second storey," Mr Phillips said.

Firefighters arrived, but were unable to douse the fire until a Wel Energy fault man arrived to cut power to the house.

A spare room received extensive smoke and water damage and much of the ceiling was destroyed.

But what has Mr Phillips most upset is that it was the second time his switchboard has sparked a fire.

The first fire happened in February 2008.

Mr Phillips said his electrician did not know what caused it, so the problem remained.

It was not until the second fire that it was discovered that a build-up of moisture in the underground cable running from a power pole to his switchboard was the culprit.

Isolation fuses have now been installed at the top of the pole that services his property to prevent a similar incident happening again.

Mr Phillips is questioning why there were no isolation fuses and why the first electrician didn't know about the moisture build-up problem.

Electrical inspector Ian Turner said while moisture build-up was not uncommon, there was probably not as much awareness by electricians as there could be.

But he said not every case would lead to a fire.

"Each situation is different," he said. "There are a number of different factors that come into play. It's not a case of one size fits all."

Hamilton fire safety officer Dave Jenkins said the fire service was not aware of many fires that started in such a way.

Wel Energy spokesman Brendon Moloney said the pole carrying the power supply into the area did have isolation fuses. However, two of the three of them had blown so the power did not cut out.

- © Fairfax NZ News