A brief note on Fire Accidents Due to Electrical Short Circuits and How Industries can Prevent Electrical Accidents.

Fire has been one of the oldest risks around us and much has been done to control it. However, it still continues to be the most destructive threat to life and property.

The recent Fire accidents reveals that many buildings and establishments such as Industrial Complex, Banks, Hospitals, Educational Infrastructures, Commercial Complexes, high crowd gathering places have openly disregarded fire safety norms.

Fire hazards are a common threat to establishments, and in most cases, investigations have revealed that fire occurred due to Negligence and Poor Understanding of Safety Systems.

When it comes to Fire Accidents the accidents have been classified as follows by the NCRB,

• Fire due to Fire Works / Crackers
• Short -Circuit (Electrical)
• Cooking Gas / Stove Burst
• Other Fire Accidents

The Table below lists the report findings of  National Crime Records Bureau on Fire accidents due to Electrical Short Circuits in last 5 Years.

National Level Statistics on Fire Accidents due to Electrical Short Circuit

The Statistics analysis of the data sourced from the NCRB annual report since 2012 to 2015 reveals that, the Fire accidents due to Electrical Short Circuits accounts for 6 to 13% of the Total Fire accidents. Alarmingly the increasing trend of Fire accidents due to Electrical Short circuit is found.

Further if you look at the fire due to short circuit statistics, 2015 Year data is alarming with the increase of 29% from the previous year. The NCRB report had several Parameters, Case Details & Numbers, to me the interesting was the state wise fire accidents, I have shortlisted top 5 Indian States out of 29 States & 7 UTs based on the Fire accidents – especially due to Electrical Short circuit. Surprisingly Tamil Nadu holds #2 Position and accounts for 11% of the Total Fire Accidents.

The Tamil Nadu state Fire & Rescue Services department claims with the statistics that, the Property lost due to fire accidents are worth the value of 27 Crores to 52 Crores every year in the last 5 Years. The official data doesn’t account the indirect loss due to the accident.

The below graph details the Number of Fire accidents happened in Tamil Nadu in the last Year (2016). This number includes Small, Medium and Larger Accidents,(For the benefit of readers i am not going to details of it. With the State data i did a small analysis, you can find below the fire call statistics above 900 are listed, Top 7 districts have been listed, Villupuram, Madurai, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli & Cuddalore top the list. This is obviously due to several other reasons say Communal Violence triggered accidents. If you look at the Industrial towns Coimbatore, Tirupur & Erode the fire accident calls are above 900.

The awareness on Prevention of Fire Due to Electrical Short Circuits are Very Low among the Stakeholders. We cant describe the Fire accident with a Single Word “Electrical Short Circuits”, Fire due to the Electrical systems can be triggered by many factors, but the State & Central Official Statements just Mention as “Electrical Short Circuits”, This needs to be addressed well and preventive measures needs to be spread across all stakeholders especially the Industrial Community. The very purpose of this detailed analysis is to give an insight on the Fire Accidents Especially due to the Electrical issues.

Our organization VRNC have been serving the MSME’s in the field of Energy Efficiency & Energy Management and Sustainability Solutions. In our Cluster Tirupur we have conducted 86+ Energy Audits in which more than 90% of the companies we have visited used to have “Fire & Safety Hazard in Electrical Systems”.

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Electrical Installations often fail or malfunction because of Load Variation, Electrical Surge or inappropriate operational practices and Poor knowledge on Best Practices. The Electrical Panels and the Electrical Systems in the Infrastructure needs to be analyzed for its effectiveness in terms of Load Balance, Energy Loss. Unbalanced loads in the Phases will trigger excessive heat in the Systems, with the prolonged condition this might trigger the Hot Spot Formation and finally leads to Fire Hazard. The cables / wire laid under the trench or the wall have to be checked for its proper Size and functionality. The below image shows the Various Safety Issues in Electrical Panels identified in our Safety Assessment Program.

Many such issues in the Electrical systems won’t be visible to our naked eyes, To identify the “Fire Hazard” Locations and preventing the Failure in industries can be addressed by adopting our Customized “Electrical Safety Assessment & Audit Program using Thermographic Analysis”.

Under the “Electrical Safety Assessment & Audit Program” we assess your Factory Electrical System’s health, pit falls in design and Opportunities to conserve energy and improve the overall performance of the Facility. You can also perform this Assessment for your Proposed Project Building / New Installations/Solar Plants as well.

Prevention is Better than Cure! Contact us Immediately to Explore the Safety Issues in Your Plant & Address it Effectively.

If you want to Discuss more & to Avoid Electrical Fire Hazards <Click Here> & Submit your Queries.

References:

1. http://www.tnfrs.tn.nic.in/statistics.htm
2. http://www.tnfrs.tn.nic.in/Stat_16.pdf
3. http://ncrb.nic.in/index.htm
4. http://ncrb.nic.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2013/ADSI-2013.pdf
5. http://ncrb.nic.in/StatPublications/ADSI/ADSI2015/adsi-2015-full-report.pdf

Thanks & Regards