Electrical Fire Damage and Restoration in Cary, NC

What Do I Do If I Have An Electric Fire In Cary, NC?

There are many things that can damage or ruin your home, and all of them are stressful. Not many are as terrifying as fire.

Your house, in a sense, is designed for fire. We don’t see it very often, but behind the walls and under the floors are electrical cables that move electricity around your house. It’s an essential element of modern life, but one we should always realize holds great danger. Electrical fires happen surprisingly often, and when they do, there’s an excellent chance your house will suffer damage.

What Can Cause An Electrical Fire?

• One of the biggest problems is faulty wiring. Some you can see – the electrical cord on light for instance. Some are behind the walls and you can’t see them easily. In older houses, the standards were different and the old wiring may be of a lighter gauge. Simply put, if you try to do something like run a server farm out of an old, unmodified house, you’re going to heat those old wires up and they’ll catch eventually.
• An older house may still have a fuse box instead of a breaker panel. A modern panel is a major improvement. If you have a fusebox, then you still have old wiring behind it. Caveat Emptor!

• Often electrical fires are caused by faulty outlets or by worn out power cords. You should always inspect cords periodically. A frayed cord can spark a fire. Also, never run a cord under a rug, and never try to cut off the grounding plug on anything. It’s there for a reason. You can always buy an adapter.

• High-wattage light bulbs that are used in a lower wattage device can also start a fire. Don’t use a high-watt bulb in a low-watt device.
• Space Heaters. Never, ever use a space heater near anything flammable. Also, you may notice that the cord gets hot. If you used an extension cord, that one will get hot too and could become a real problem. If you need a space heater, don’t get the kinds with coils. Get the ones that radiate across the surface. That’ll be much safer.

Great, that’s how they start? How do you prevent them from starting?

If this is a worry for you, hire someone to inspect your house. It’s not cheap, but you won’t miss the money when you’re standing on your sidewalk watching your house turn into a fireball. Some people like to take the following precautions:

• Check your receptacles (you can do this yourself).
• Look in the attic and/or crawlspace to see if rodents or insects have compromised the casing on wiring.
• Watch for erratic performance. If your porch light flickers constantly, you’ll need some work.
• Do you have a breaker or fuse that constantly goes off? You may have inadvertently overloaded the circuit.

What Do I Do If I Have An Electrical Fire In Cary or Durham, NC and the surrounding area?

Immediately call 911. Other than checking on and alerting family members, nothing is more important.

After the crisis has passed, you need to assess the damage. We’ll be happy to come out and look at it. We’ll help you to talk to your insurance company. We can repair walls, floors, sheetrock, roofs – pretty much anything fire damages we can help to fix.

If you live in Cary, Raleigh, Holly Springs, or Durham, North Carolina, or the surrounding area, we can get a crew to you quickly. We can help you with the insurance company. We can assess any further structural damage and repair it quickly and at a very competitive price.