Improper Fuse Wire Replacement, and Possible Association with Commercial Fires

The rewireable fuse or cutout is widely used in Bangladesh and elsewhere, in spite of the very real danger of improper replacement of fuse wires. To assess the problem, a preliminary survey of buildings, electrical shops, and electricians were conducted. The majority of buildings and retail establishments were found to use fuse wires. Electricians were found to use copper of arbitrary thicknesses as fuses, and were unaware of the existence of specialized fuse wires. Every year, there are numerous fires in the garments and other industries, causing hundreds of deaths. As the vast majority of these fires are of electrical origin, the evidence is strong that improper fuse wiring may have been the cause of the fires. The number of smaller fires which do not make it to the news is likely to be orders of magnitude greater than the publicized fires. Even when the origin is not electrical, insulation failures may cause secondary electrical fires, that may cause the fire to spread rapidly to the rest of the building, making it hard to extinguish. Index Term-Fuse, wire, cutout, industry, fires.