Faulty wiring caused fire that gutted Ypsilanti Township home
Firefighters work to suffocate a fire at a home on Ohio Avenue in Ypsilanti Township. Investigators determined faulty wiring caused the blaze.
Faulty wiring caused a fire that destroyed the interior of a home on Ohio Avenue in Ypsilanti Township Tuesday morning, a fire official said.
Ypsilanti Township Fire Department Capt. Brad Johnson said investigators determined a copper wire and an aluminum wire were wound together in a junction box in the closet of the home’s front bedroom. Johnson said investigators determined the wires caused the box to overheat and set the closet ablaze.
The fire quickly spread to the rest of the room, consuming much of the interior of the house.
Ypsilanti Township firefighters went to the home on Ohio Avenue, just south of the railroad tracks near Michigan Avenue, at 9:44 a.m. Tuesday. Johnson said the fire was out by 10:07 a.m. and firefighters spent much of their time on the scene removing the home’s contents and extinguishing hot spots.
A man and a woman were home at the time the fire broke out. Johnson said the couple was watching TV when the power went out at the home. The woman discovered the fire in the bedroom and, after they attempted to put out the flames with water, the couple fled the home.
Johnson said both were exposed to smoke and heat but they declined to be transported to the hospital by the Huron Valley Ambulance crews on site. At one point, the man actually ran back into the burning home to find the woman, unaware of the fact she had already escaped safely.
The couple plans to stay with friends and family in the area and declined assistance from the American Red Cross.
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
clownfish
Wed, Jan 9, 2013 : 1:57 p.m.
A good example of why we have building codes. Sorry for their loss, hope they have a place to live until they can rebuild and were fully insured.
Nicholas Urfe
Wed, Jan 9, 2013 : 2:28 p.m.
Those government regulations are stifling my freedom!!1!
justcurious
Wed, Jan 9, 2013 : 2:27 a.m.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/516.pdf "The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff and other government officials have investigated numerous hazardous incidents and fires throughout the na- tion involving aluminum branch circuit wiring. A national survey conducted by Franklin Research Institute for CPSC showed that homes built before 1972, and wired with aluminum, are 55 times more likely to have one or more wire connections at outlets reach "Fire Hazard Conditions"1 than homes wired with copper. That survey encompassed only the wire connections at outlets. It did not address other types of aluminum wire connec- tions and splices in homes that are also prone to fail. No information was developed for aluminum-wired homes built after 1972."
justcurious
Wed, Jan 9, 2013 : 2:24 a.m.
Sorry to read about this. I hope they can get back to normal as quickly as possible. It must have been terrifying to not be able to do anything about it.