Where there's spark, there's fire

Those household extension cords you're using could be a fire waiting to happen.

Fire prevention officer Kevin Thomas said the Halifax Regional Fire Department recommends against using extension cords altogether, except for occasional, temporary use.

"Extension cords are for sale out there, and as long as they're CSA approved, they're safe to use in Canada. But if you're going to use an extension cord, it's recommended that its used short term, like for a couple of days or a week," Thomas said.

"What we recommend instead of making a decision to use an extension cord longterm, is that you relocate your appliances or have a proper electrical plug installed."

Last week, the fire department determined that an overloaded extension cord was to blame for an apartment fire in Dartmouth.

The tenant had run an extension cord underneath some bedroom furniture to power a television and cable box. The extension cord was too light to accommodate the power being drawn.

Thomas said extension cords should never be placed anywhere where they could be crushed or damaged.

"Extension cords are meant to be left out in the open so if there's any heat in the cord it dissipates," he said. "You don't want the cord anywhere where it will be hidden."

While the electrical wiring in a home is protected by thick insulation and the walls of the home, extension cords can be damaged or crushed by heavy furniture, or simply wear out and cause a fire.

And just because the extension cord has capacity for three plugs, that doesn't necessarily mean you can plug three things into it.

"What individuals need to do is check and make sure the extension cord that they're using is a large enough guage to power the equipment," he said. "Maybe people have that misconception that if there's an opening, they can plug something into it, and that's not the case."

Thomas said people should check the wattage rating on the extension cord, and if it's a 1,200 watt cord, then you can safely use that extension cord temporarily up to 1,200 watts.

"So if you're going to plug three appliances into it, add up the wattage of the three appliances, and if it doesn't exceed the 1,200 watts then you're OK. If it exceeds the 1,200 watts - and electrical heater alone can be 1,000 watts in itself - then this is going to demand more power than the extension cord can safely supply, if they're all on at the same time," he said.

Electrician Paul Shipley of P. Shipley Electrical Inc. said he sees extension cords in use all the time when he's working in people's homes.

"There's a fair amount of it out there. I tell them that's not kosher. That's all you can tell them, that you shouldn't be doing that," he said.

While Shipley agrees extension cords should not be used permanently, there are ways to make their use safer.

For example, he said, there are now arc fault breakers available that can be installed directly into an electrical panel.

"If it senses any arcing, it will shut the circuit down," Shipley said.

Arc fault breakers are now mandatory in Canada under the electrical code in new home construction on any breakers connected to a bedroom circuit.

"These would protect you against this situation, and if you have older wiring in the walls and in the ceiling boxes and plug boxes, it will also protect against any arcing," Shipley said.

Shipley said arc fault breakers cost about $70 each to buy, and installation charges would be on top of that.

While installing new outlets into an existing house is not an easy job, it can be done by fishing the wires down through the wall to the panel, Shipley said.

Another alternative, he said, would be to piggyback off one outlet to create a new one somewhere else running the wires on the outside of the wall in a surface conduit, which is safer than using an extension cord.

Shipley said it appeared the extension cord that caught fire in Dartmouth was a standard 18-guage one with the three-plug end.

"I wouldn't trust them," Shipley said. "And never, ever, run extension cords under a carpet, ever," Shipley stresses.