A fire in the attic of a Nanaimo duplex displaced five people on the weekend.
Firefighters responded shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday to the home in the 5600 block of Metral Drive.
The fire, which turned out to have been caused by an electrical overload, did not cause any injuries, but displaced a family of three on one side of the duplex and a single mother and her son on the other, according to Alan Millbank, Nanaimo Fire Rescue fire prevention officer.
“There were no injuries, but there is considerable damage to the living room of one suite where the ceiling was pulled down to extinguish the fire in the attic,” Millbank said, in an e-mail.
He said it appeared an overloaded circuit caused the a service wire to fail at a weak point in the attic. The overload was caused by having too many devices plugged into a single outlet with outlet extenders and extension cords and power bars at one time.
“The breaker tripped, but not in time to prevent a fire,” he said.
Nanaimo Fire Rescue warns that electrical fires rank in the top three causes of fires and most are preventable. People should never overload wall outlets with outlet extenders, power bars, extension cords and outlet multipliers without first ensuring the circuit can supply enough power for the appliances plugged into it. As people spend more time indoors in winter and with Christmas on the way, more devices are plugged in and there is increased potential to overload electrical circuits and the risk of causing electrical fires. Failure of home circuit breakers to trip under heavy load or due to short circuits should be checked out by a qualified electrical contractor.
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