3EATON CORPORATION BR003010EN(Source: Wikipedia, Torre Windsor)(Source: La Hora, 09 May 2019)32 %of all fires are caused by electricity 1)16.808 fire deaths in 34 countries (2017) 2)$ 11.1 billion damages due to fires in structures not related to wildfires (USA, 2018) 3)1) Institut für Brandursachenstatistik (2018) and applicable for the fires that were reported between 2002 and 20182) CTIF (Center of Fire Statistics) report Nr. 24 from 2019 (World Fire Statistics for the year 2017)3) Insurance Information Institute, Facts + Statistics: FireOffice tower caught fireSkyscraper collapsed after blazeMadrid, ES - On a Saturday around midnight, a fire was detected on the 21st floor. The fire spread rapidly throughout the entire building leading to the collapse of the outermost steel parts of the upper floors. Firefighters needed almost 24 hours to extinguish it. While seven firefighters were injured, fortunately nobody was killed in the fire, which was arguably the worst fire in Madrid‘s history. The city council of Madrid covered the cost of demolishing the remains of the building, estimated at approximately € 22M ($ 32.5M). A new tower called Torre Titania was finished in 2011, replacing the collapsed Windsor Tower. After subsequent investigation the fire was blamed on an electrical fault.Electrical fault in a cultural heritage buildingElectrical fault leads to devastating fire in a cultural heritage buildingAn electrical fault that occurred in a storage room was identified as the cause for the fire that engulfed the first floor of a cultural heritage residential building in the metro-politan area of Quito, Ecuador.The staircase - including the handrail - of the building were completely destroyed and the wooden flooring of the first floor was also damaged, yet apparently there was no damage to the ground floor of the house, apart from the carbonized wood and debris.The house was overpopulated by some 20 tenants of foreign nationality who were transferred to one of the municipal shelters. According to witness accounts, some desperate residents even jumped out of windows when they realized the building was on fire.(Source: Chelsea Record, 10 May 2019)Family home in fireElectrical problems cause fatal fireThe life of a 37-year old man was claimed by a fire that broke out in a 2-family home in Chelsea, Massachusetts, causing also considerable material damage.Investigators ruled as cause for the fire an electrical event, since the fire origin was located in an area where there were numerous electrical circuits. In addition, according to the residents’ reports, the lights in the first-floor kitchen went out just before the fire was discovered.What is more, the house’s smoke alarms, carbon monoxide alarms and heat detectors were either disconnected, not functional, too old or simply missing, which is why no sounding alarms were heard by first responders.
