Fire Safety at Home

B

Browndoff

Guest
Hi,
I'm writing to warn the public of potential fire-hazards with even brand-new electrical appliances!

We recently had a new Broadband Connection + Phone-line + TV 'Package' installed using NTL's cable-TV network. This involved setting-up the new modem and wireless router for the computer and the transformer for the portable-handset phone - all were connected on the same connector-block [I'm sure you ALL have these in your own homes too!] as the original NTL set-top box. Don't get me wrong - the total POWER DEMAND was NOT EXCESSIVE and no circuit-breaker was even 'tempted' to 'trip'. But there was a fire in my living-room within a few days!! The little phone-transformer/PSU was burned-out and so was the old telly - so which one was the source of the fire?

When the Fire-Service [God bless them all!!] had put out the fire, the watch-commander said to me that they had recently dealt with several fires which appeared to have been associated with such new installations!!! What's being done about it?? Has anybody checked this equipment to ensure that it CANNOT [in any reasonable circumstance] be the direct source of a fire?? Will it take a FATAL fire to stop the issue of potentially faulty appliances?

Before you ask, I'm NOT especially trained in Forensic-analysis of fires but I AM a qualified engineer, so this is NOT just the rantings of someone with a grudge against NTL - our house is FULLY insured against fire so my only worry is about the safety of my fellow citizens of Dublin!

Was the fireman correct? Have there indeed been several fires within similar circumstances?
 
Browndoff said:
I'm writing to warn the public of potential fire-hazards with even brand-new electrical appliances!

...

The little phone-transformer/PSU was burned-out and so was the old telly - so which one was the source of the fire?
Click to expand...
Bit of a contradiction there? Was the fire office not able to shed any more light on what the specific cause might be?
 
Browndoff said:
When the Fire-Service [God bless them all!!] had put out the fire, the watch-commander said to me that they had recently dealt with several fires which appeared to have been associated with such new installations!!! What's being done about it?? Has anybody checked this equipment to ensure that it CANNOT [in any reasonable circumstance] be the direct source of a fire??
Click to expand...
Surely the Fire Officer should be reporting this to his superiors, and if there is a trend of a number of such incidents, they can take appropriate action? Contact the Chief Fire Officer for your local authority and ask him/her to look into it.
 
There is nothing new about NTL’s phone equipment causing fires, as per these threads:

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=4041&highlight=ntl+fire

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=56951&highlight=ntl+fire

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/13/ntl_tellabs/

and more on other forms.

At this stage I would have though that NTL would have properly tested any new kit they were sending out. The PSUs should have thermal fuses installed in them, but it is not beyond possibilities that the manufactures have substituted ‘cheaper’ parts halfway through a production run. I met someone whos apartment went on fire after his IBM Thinkpad went up. This was about a year before the Sony manufactured (Dell etc) battery recall.
 
Won't the loss adjuster with your insurance company be following this up. They may well have come across this already.
 
BrownedOff - Have you considered contacting NTL/Chorus directly (freefone 1908)? I'd expect that their legal department would be very interested in hearing about this and following up.
 
Let's be clear about this.

1) A new user makes his first post claiming recently installed NTL equipment may be a fire hazard - or mabye it's his old TV?

2) An existing user posts two links to rumours which existed about NTL back in 2004.

This qualifies as urban myth.

1) Tell NTL if there is a problem
2) Ask the Fire Service to issue a warning if they are so concerned.

If there is some independent, verified product warning, then please do let people know about it through Askaboutmoney.


Brendan
 
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