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It's been raining here in the Philippines the past few weeks with typhoons one after another. This weekend, Saturday morning, I'm on the attic of my grandparents' house (I live alone in the metro) with nonstop downpour outside when electricity suddenly went out and I heard electrical buzzing downstairs. I knew something went wrong (wouldn't be the first time). Immediately ran downstairs and almost shit my shorts. The main circuit breaker shorted or overloaded and was on fire, even the ceiling caught fire. I stared at it a few seconds in disbelief. Immediately opened the faucet and filled a bucket while I ran outside to get some help. Came back in and saw the ceiling still on fire (I honestly didn't know what I expected) and my main reaction was to put it out with water (which I did). Good thing it died out before it went out of control.
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I was devasted and very stressed. To think I was very sleepy due to going out the night before and the cold weather. I couldve been asleep when it happened and wouldnt know what happened. I couldve been out of the house and comeback the whole compound burning. Adulting is very hard.
I'm currently looking for a private electrician to look at it but by my own observation it looks like the water managed to seep through the walls and filled the breaker. It wasn't the first time it happened, the last time it mainly just shorted itself. I'm not gonna be staying at that house again.
To top it off, I missed the grand finals of TI. fuck
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To top it off, I missed the grand finals of TI. fuck
worst part
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I feel bad for laughing on the last part.
Hope you and yours are well. Might want to put a portable fire ext just in case.
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Glad both you and place survived.
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On August 15 2016 10:24 brinepumps wrote:
I feel bad for laughing on the last part.
Hope you and yours are well. Might want to put a portable fire ext just in case.
I think he put it there to lighten up the mood, and to tell us that he's doing alright. 
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Yeah, thankfully I was at home or awake at that time. Hopefully I can move into a new place by next week. It scares me thinking what couldve been if I had been unlucky.
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Cascadia1754 Posts
Careful with water + electrical fires.. worse things than a small fire can happen when those are mixed.
Glad you are alright.
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good thing you were around when it happened man.
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I was hesitating a bit if I shouldve poured water over the fire but I didnt know what else to do.
Thanks <3 ~
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sincre twitch emoticons are not allowed...
take it easy
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glad it went alright. please take care.
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i'm glad you're ok man. I think you are not supposed to throw water but i'm not sure what is the correct response
Adulting is very hard.
indeed
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yeah dude please be careful throwing a bucket of water over eletrical fires :O
my tumbledryer was slightly on fire the other day, i just pulled it from the wall a bit and called the fire people , you're not gonna see me put water on that shit
you can watch the fire as long as you like but the moment you take action you better be sure its worth risking your life. i guess philipines isn't 10 mins wait for the fire people tho
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Invest in Fire Extinguisher maybe :O Electric fires shouldn't be put out by water!
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Man for next time never approach electrical fires with water, always use a co2 extinguisher.
You can also invest into a can of sikaflex to seal the joints of circuit board 
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sorry to hear icy but i'm glad you're ok. :D
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I was desperate with water the house was made out of wood, I had to gamble or risk losing the whole house waiting for the fire dept (on a typhoon...). Still no electricity until today and I have yet to find an electrician too assess the damage and repair but from the looks of it, the whole electrical wiring has to be overhauled. The current location of the breaker is too exposed to rain.
Thanks for the concerns guys! <3
I really didn't thought the possibility of a house fire and the event opened my eyes to reality, I hope other people will take precautions as well.
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Damn, good thing nothing bad happened when you doused it with water.
I've been told before to never put electrical fires out with water. Baking soda is an option for smaller fires, but if it's a bit bigger, a fire extinguisher is your best bet.
If I was panicking though I might forget that and go for water as the first option though.
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If I had ran out of options, I would've called you if I can crash at your place in Makati 
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lol, well I could have welcomed you. I have the place to myself for a while after all.
my laptop's video card got bricked a couple of weeks ago though so we wouldn't have been able to play dota.
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I'm curious now..
I know it's not optimal to put out electrical fires with water, since you risk destroying (by shorting) the equipment. But isn't it always preferred over not doing anything? Or is there some possible electrocution risk?
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United Kingdom14103 Posts
ICY 
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On August 16 2016 20:15 disco wrote:
I'm curious now..
I know it's not optimal to put out electrical fires with water, since you risk destroying (by shorting) the equipment. But isn't it always preferred over not doing anything? Or is there some possible electrocution risk?
There's a pretty large electrocution risk actually. If it's an electrical device burning and you can safely unplug it I don't see any problems with using water after the unplugging.(water will brick any devices of course but it's already on fire...)
If it's an outlet you have a bigger problem but you can switch that off with the main breaker.
I think my top recommendations for all TL members when it comes to fires are:
1) Get a fire alarm/check that your fire alarm has batteries! This is no 1 priority.
2) Just sit down for 5 minutes and think about how you would get out from your house/apartment if there was a fire or how you would put it out. There are many youtube videos on the subject too.
Tip: if you feel that you can put out with a blanket that is usually the best choice, on average it takes a longer time for a standard bucket of water to fill up from a tap than it takes for a small fire to get large enough that a standard bucket of water won't affect it much. When in doubt get the fuck out.
Also if you are in an apartment and it's burning somewhere else in the building don't run out into a smoke filled staircase, it's the thing that kills most people because the smoke will get you before you have time to get out. At least for standard Swedish building code structures the fire department will have time to put out the fire long before it gets through your front door or walls if the choice is between a dangerous jump or staying in the departement and I imagine this is the case for many other countries too (checking how sturdy your front door is and how thick the walls are is a good indicator, also the newer the house is the better).
Just having thought about these things even once can do amazing things to your speed in making the correct decision when you wake up from your fire alarm at 1 am.
3) Have insurance. Makes running from your house a lot easier.
4) Get a fire blanket. They are super cheap and extremely useful for putting out the more common smaller house fires and the also don't fuck up everything else in the room while doing so which is nice. (IKEA has them and most other safety things you want for cheap if you don't know where to look).
5) Take 5 minutes to check where electrical stuff is in your house and how it works (especially good if your living at home and have no idea because your parents fix stuff). Bonus is that you can now also usually fix blown breakers which can otherwise be annoying to try to do in the dark for the first time when you don't know where the fuck the main is.
6) Get a fire extinguisher if you want to tryhard because honestly they are also cheap. Don't get one for water, I think powder is the best because they can also directly put out electrical fires (and most any other fire too) without having unplugg stuff first. Do note that powder extinguishers will fuck up most of everything in the room so if you have no insurance it can be expensive! However even light insurance tend to cover 100 % of damage due to putting out a fire since insurance companies really like people who come prepared.
If you don't want the powder extinguisher foam is better than water for electrical fires and equal to water in most other cases and water is the cheapest if price is an issue. Water is still good for putting out normal fires though.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6qjGxkw.jpg)
