It must be the time of the year for Flexible Electrical Metallic Tubing (FEMT) problems.
A few weeks back I ran a reciprocating saw through a run of FEMT, but this one was a lot more serious and somewhat tragic.
Sunday morning around 2:00 AM on 06/15/25 a home out here burned down, homeowners injuries where minor, however two family pets perished.
It was suspected the origin of the fire was electrical so I was asked by the homeowner to take a look at what happened and after digging into what happened I agreed the cause of the fire was electrical.
Background.
The service entrance is pole mounted and the load center was mounted on the rear of the home, the first violation I noticed someone had installed a run of FEMT from the load center (in a wet area) to the what was the living room, then to two bedrooms for a total run of approx 70′ and a load of 40+ amps.
The conductors in the FEMT where two flexible #12 AWG copper conductors, that was another violation as the circuit was supplying both 120 to outlets, lighting and two window A/C units, plus 240 for a wall mounted 14k BTU A/C unit with the metallic jacket of the FEMT being used for both neutral and ground.
Conclusions.
The first violation I discovered was the circuit was protected by a 50 amp breaker, that breaker was an upgrade for the proper 20 amp breaker originally installed due to 20 amp breaker frequently tripping by being overloaded when the 240 VAC A/C compressor kicked in so it was changed out to a 50 without up-sizing the conductors or installing a neutral and ground conductors.
The FEMT was supported by from what I could tell by plumbing straps screwed below the wooden supports of the wooden flooring.
All of the work was done including changing out the breaker by a neighborhood “handyman” who claimed to be a electrician.
My conclusion is the fire started from overloaded copper conductors within the FEMT where one or the other had a insulation failure causing conductor to contact and arc to the aluminum jacket of the FEMT, an arc with aluminum is very hot and lacking a solid path back to the neutral in the load center the amperage draw was too low to trip the 50 amp breaker, which is 25-30 amps higher than what the conductors are rated for by Code and that started the fire.
In closing.
Deceased pets aside, the real tragedy is the homeowner may discover his claim for his loss’s are denied due to the fact he hired a unlicensed contractor and yes he can push the state to have the handyman arrested on a felony charge of unlicensed electrical contracting, but that doesn’t make the homeowner whole.
And or he can take the handyman to Circuit Civil, but that requires hiring and paying a attorney to hopefully get a judgement that he may never collect a dime on.
Bottom line never hire unlicensed, uninsured contractors who don’t know what they are doing.
