Fire/heat damaged conductors

Specific Inspection Topics Electrical Inspections
1

Need information or codes on replacing fire/heat damaged conductors (wiring). Small house fire in basement, on 4 circuits the insulated protective coating was damaged from the heat. Got several estimates to replace the wiring all contractors agreed that the wiring needed replaced, but the insurance adjuster just had service master paint them white, they supposedly had a quote *[Licensed Electrical Contractor] *check the wiring. I had turned off the breakers to these circuit’s the night/morning of the fire they are still turned off at this time. Referred client to a lawyer; meeting with insurance adjuster on Monday. I know the damaged wiring need replaced just need information and/or codes to show the uninformed/stupid adjuster.

Thanks for any information

Gary

2

NFPA recomends all wiring that shows signs of damage be replaced. Once you get beyond the fire damaged area you can set J boxes to the undamaged parts. Most electricians will still want to “megger” the remaining wiring in case it was damaged in some way.
I believe IAEI magazine had an article about this a while ago. Look at IAEI.ORG, go to the magazine and search for “fire damage” or “restoration” (stuff like that).

3

Oddly, there doesn’t seem to be much industry guidance in this regard.

Here’s an interesting semi-related article from a manufacturer on evaluating jacket damage:

http://www.southwire.com/processGetArticle.do?commonId=672d7380410d5010VgnVCM1000002702a8c0____