You and your family have weathered the stress of a fire and returned home, but you’re not out of the woods yet.  There are several electrical safety considerations you need to be mindful of when returning home so that your family stays safe into the future.  Unseen damage could have occurred to your home or farm’s electrical system – damage that could cause a fire or pose a hazard to your family well into the future if they’re not addressed.

Plan on returning home after a fire during the daylight hours.  Often, during fires, all electrical power to a neighborhood or area is turned off, so it is quite likely that your home will be without power for several hours, if not days.  Returning during daylight hours gives you time to survey any possible damage to your property in the safety of the daylight, without the need to resort to flashlights, candles, or lanterns.    If you do need extra light, please use battery operated lanterns and flashlights; don’t use oil or gas lanterns or candles.  Remember, if it was dry enough for a bushfire, using a light source that relies on flame isn’t especially advisable.

When first arriving, survey your property for any damage.  This damage could include not only fire damage, but also water damage from firefighting efforts, and wind damage from the artificially high winds developed during bushfires.  Pay special attention to the wires on the exterior of your home.  If any overhead wires (whether they’re wires serving your home from the power company, or wires of yours serving any sheds, barns, or external buildings), show any visible signs of having been overheated, make special note of this.  Signs of overheating can include “alligatoring” of the wire’s insulation, discoloration, or total disintegration of the insulation.  If you see signs like this in any overhead wires, call your electrician immediately.  The electrician will be able to quickly determine if they’re “your wires” or the power company’s overhead wires, and suggest the most appropriate course of action.  If they’re power company owned wires, he’ll assist you in reporting this to the company.  If they’re your overhead wires (such as to external buildings on your own property), he’ll likely temporarily disconnect power to them or replace them, at your option.  Overhead wires that remain in service that have been burned or scorched pose a safety hazard, since they can short out with no notice at all, and rain down a hail of sparks onto nearby buildings and bush, potentially causing another fire.

When you move on to the interior of your home, avoid turning on light switches, lamps, or other electrical appliances until you’ve made a thorough visual survey for any possible interior damage.  Make your way to the breaker box or fuse box first, and turn off all electrical power to the home at this location, even if the power company has your neighborhood in the dark.  In the event that the power company restores power to your area while you’re still checking for damage, you don’t want a short circuit in your home to start another fire.

Damage to interior wiring during a fire is from two major sources.  Heat from the fire, and water from the firefighting efforts.  Both of these sources of damage are equally dangerous, and the home needs to be visually examined for any possible fire or water damage.  Bear in mind that if any windows to your home were broken during the brush fire, many gallons of water could have potentially been delivered into your home through those broken windows, even if your home was not on fire.

As you look around your home, if you notice that any portion of your home was on fire, or that any portion of the interior of your home was saturated with water from firefighting efforts, call your electrician.  Wires that have been heat stressed or burned by fire have had major changes to the wire insulation properties that cannot be discerned by the naked eye.  The professional electrician has specialized equipment to quickly identify wires that have been heat stressed beyond a safe point that should be replaced.  If you continue to allow electricity to flow in wires that have been heat stressed without having them tested by an electrician first, you’re risking a catastrophe.

Additionally, any wires, power points, switches, light fixtures, breaker boxes, or fuse boxes that have been saturated need similarly examined by your electrician.  It is recommended that breaker boxes, power points, and switches that have been wet be replaced outright.  Wiring that has been wet should be tested by your electrician to determine if it is too damaged to remain in service.

If the electrician determines that some of the home is unsafe to turn the electricity back on, he can turn on only the circuits that “pass the tests”, so that you have at least some electricity to live in the home safely while the rest of the home undergoes repair.  If you choose to run a generator, do not connect the generator to the home’s electrical wiring.  Not only is this unsafe if your wiring has not been examined by an electrician, but if done improperly, can risk the lives of the linemen trying to restore power to your area.  It is best to run portable cords to a generator if you choose to run from generator power.

Resist the urge to self-diagnose any electrical circuits on your own after a fire.  Without the proper equipment and training, it is impossible to tell by eye alone whether a circuit’s insulation will continue to protect against short circuit – or for how long.  Even if you think you’re only restoring power to portions of the home that were not effected by fire or water, it’s difficult to tell exactly how the wiring was run within the walls.  Circuits that serve the other side of the home may wind and weave their way through the portion that was fire or water damaged; you can seldom tell for sure.  Remember, after fire or water damage, any circuits that have not been examined by an electrician should not be energized, and any circuits that have been condemned by an electrician should not be re-energized.  Doing so risks your property and your family’s health.