Cable Forum - Has your phone socket ever caught fire?

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Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh (Post 35867054)

Your question was

No, it hasn't.

Oh sorry, I thought you were disagreeing with post number 9!

Taken from another forum:

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveyfs;c-84468634

There's a lot of legacy infrastructure around where phone wires are carried lower down on poles which carry the 3 phase 240/415V electricity mains, often old open wire systems. I wonder whether the phone cable has come into contact with 240V at the pole rather than at the house.

This sort of thing - you can see the phone service as the thin wire at the lowest point
http://www.electrical-contractor.net/PC/UKL_LV.jpg

I wonder if this is what happened?

---------- Post added at 16:20 ---------- Previous post was at 16:14 ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul M (Post 35867053)

Probably not, its more likely to melt the insulation than the actual copper.

Until quite recently, BT Master sockets had surge protectors in them as well, but they dont use them any more.

I've been told that at one time BT/the GPO used to fit lightning protection and that this can sometimes still be seen in the form of a twisted bare earth wire on the outside walls of older properties.

Are/were the two features connected?

Re: Has your phone socket ever caught fire?

The amount of times I have seen switchboard PBX cards blown from lightning strikes,even when they have lightning protection equipment fitted to the building.

The chances of a fire from anything other than a lightning strike is unlikely unless there is something highly unusual at play. Being next to mains electrics with the wires in a bad state and possible damp issues too could potentially cause issues.