Why did my light catch on fire?

7 years ago

I just purchased a house and brought the existing entryway light to a reputable lighting store to make some repairs. The light worked fine but looked a little beat up. I asked the repair man to switch out the cord the light hangs from. I also asked him to replace the sockets and the plastic covers around them. I explained to him that I wanted to use extra long bulbs but that they seem to only fit a medium E9 base. The base my light had was a candelabra E12 base. The repair man offered to switch the sockets from a candelabra base to a medium base so that is what I decided to do.

Once I brought the light home, my electrician installed it and said that it immediately made popping sounds and caught on fire. It also damaged the light switch. I was not home at the time.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what might have happened? When I talked to the lighting store they proposed that my electrician must have crossed the wires. Any advice would be appreciated.

Featured Answer

kudzu9

7 years ago

Light fixtures typically have a pair of wires...a hot and a neutral (and sometimes a ground). They should be connected to the house wiring properly for safety from a shock hazard standpoint when bulbs are being changed. However, the light will still work even if the hot and neutral wires are reversed and should not cause a fire or other similar problem. This is incredibly basic and no electrician would be unaware of this. It sounds like there was a short in the fixture due to the rewiring and this caused the problem. In my opinion, the lighting store messed up the re-wiring and is now trying to shift blame with the "wires crossed" story.

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Comments (10)

Shing Jli
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks kudzu9 for your reply and explaining the hot and neutral wires. I googled it and found this. (I almost feel like the person at the lighting store googled the same thing...)

“Short Circuit: A short circuit occurs when a hot wire carrying a current and a neutral wire touch each other. When this happens, a tremendous amount of current flows, causing a fuse to blow or a circuit breaker to trip. Sparks may fly and pop, and there may even be a small fire and smoke accompanied by the smell of burning plastic.”

Is it possibly that a professional electrician could make that kind of a mistake. I do feel like the store is most likely responsible but I just want to have my facts straight.
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DavidR
7 years ago
Any burn marks? Where?
kudzu9
7 years ago
Anything is possible, but it's hard to believe that a licensed electrician would not get this right; it's like asking if a carpenter knows which end of a nail to pound on. I can imagine any number of things going wrong with re-wiring a chandelier and replacing sockets.
Shing Jli
Original Author
7 years ago
Okay thanks for your help kudzu9.

DavidR I’m not sure about the burns. Still need to talk to my electrician to get the details. Why do you ask?
mike_kaiser_gw
7 years ago
I would doubt that wires got "crossed". Assuming, say, that a hot was inadvertently connected to a neutral, that would have tripped a breaker almost immediately. From what you are describing, I'd be far more inclined to think that something went amiss in the rewiring process. Perhaps the jacket of the wire was damaged allowing the wire to make contact with the metal of the fixture.

Without actually seeing the the fixture and damage, some of this is speculation of course.
DavidR
7 years ago
"I’m not sure about the burns. Still need to talk to my electrician to get the details. Why do you ask?"

For the same reason that Mike said, "Without actually seeing the the fixture and damage, some of this is speculation of course."

So I guess that you haven't actually seen the damage yourself? If you can post photos once you do, that will help.
klem1
7 years ago
I have a feeling nether of them have proper training and credentiamls to monkey with other people's electric fixtures. Stop cheaping out hireing tinkerers and asking for free advice. Take it to a real pro and they can tell you what the problem is within 5 minutes.
sdello
7 years ago
I would expect that it should be quite clear where on the fixture the short occurred due to the burn residue. Looking at the specific location on the fixture I'd expect it to be obvious whether the short was created during the rewiring or the installation. I'd also expect any reasonable shop to have tested the fixture prior to delivering it to the customer, but that may not true.
Chessie
7 years ago
Pictures please.