Fires Involving Appliance Housings— Is There a Clear and Present Danger?

Abstract

In the past couple years, worldwide attention has been focused on the fire hazard potentially posed by the housings or casings of several types of equipment. This paper addresses the narrow question of whether there is a clear and present danger in the US with regard to the fire hazard posed by the appliance housings of certain types of equipment, based on the fire loss record relevant to these issues. The best available fire loss statistics indicate that the appliance housing fire problem in the USA may be large enough to justify some attention but would not normally be regarded as large enough to justify urgent or priority attention. The paper also asks whether there are other reasons that would justify urgent action and discusses several candidate reasons.