Investigations to Identify Electrical Ignitions of Fires: The Sleuth Engineer Can Draw From an Array of Tools

In power systems that comply with best practices, electrical ignition theoretically remains possible only when there is an accident. Generally, if there is a fire, it is not easy to identify its origin because everything is destroyed. In an effort to assist fire investigations, this article suggests a deductive approach in testing possible hypotheses on electrical ignition. It analyzes the different evolutionary scenarios that characterize faults in primary distribution circuits versus branch distribution circuits. As an application, we illustrate a case study of the fire ignition that affected two fabric storage rooms and an adjacent transformer substation.