Electrical Question

[audiosceptic]

So my daughter is sitting in her bedroom in a rented house while away at college listening to music on a Apple Hi-Fi boombox. Suddenly there is a loud pop and sparks are flying from the power cable to the boombox while the room goes dark. She pours her water on the carpet which ignited from the sparks and called me. The boombox was plugged into a cheap multiple outlet surge protector along with a curling iron and hair straightener neither of which were turned on at the time. The incident caused the house panel circuit breaker for the outlet to trip.

Any ideas what could have caused this? She wasn't touching or moving the boombox in any way when the incident happened although she was actively listening to Dave Matthews (maybe it was the choice of music?).

Here is the picture of the blown power cord.

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[Dusty Chalk]

... daughter ... college ... sparks ... power cable ... She pours her water...

I can't help but think maybe you're paying too much for college.

(Here's to hoping someone has a more serious answer, as this deserves one.)

[spritzer]

If it was deionized water then it was fine but normal water...

Faulty insulation would be the most probable culprit here.

[mypasswordis]

Er, I think she poured the water after it blew and ignited the carpet...

Is the surge protector a real surge protector possibly w/ inline fuse or is it just a bunch of outlets in parallel? And what exactly made the loud popping sound? Seems like the wires shorted on the power cable on the boombox based on the picture.

[n_maher]

The likely cause is that the cord to the boombox was damaged (rolled over by a chair, shut in a door, etc) and the two wires shorted together causing both the fire/sparks and the excessive current draw that tripped the breaker. No surge protector would really stop that from happening, only a fuse of some type would have and since the failure was in the cord the only "fuse" between it and the power source was the breaker panel.

[audiosceptic]

The water was thrown on the carpet although I'm not sure she would be aware not to thrown it on the plugged in power cable if it were flaming (I'll fix that). The surge protector was a cheap one without an inline fuse although it did have a reset button. I told her to throw it away in any case and purchase another. My first thought was the damaged power cable caused this although she claims it did not show any cuts or wear prior to the blowout. My reason for posting was to gather any information that would concern me enough to call the landlord. i.e. the house wiring could have been at fault.

[Nebby]

The fact that the sparking happened at the power cord would lead me to believe that the house wiring was not at fault.

[n_maher]

The fact that the sparking happened at the power cord would lead me to believe that the house wiring was not at fault.

Agreed, I can't really come up with a scenario where this situation could be explained via faulty house wiring. Caveat - I'm just a humble round hole cutter tech, not an electrician.

[Nebby]

I'm not an electrician either, but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn before.

[Pars]

Maybe the curling iron and hair straightener overloaded the cable and melted some of the insulation? I know you say they weren't on at the time, but they presumable were on at one time (else they wouldn't be plugged into it). Rolling over it with a chair, etc. is also plausible. And I would not suspect the house wiring, though checking to ensure the outlets are wired correctly wouldn't be a bad idea. You can get plug in testers for this at Home Depot, etc.

[manaox2]

All of those heat devices could have been exposed to the cable at one point causing some damage.

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[Pars]

Ooops, misread this as the cord for the surge protector/outlet strip being the one that shorted out.

Since it was the boombox cord, the curling iron, etc. are immaterial, other than if the cord rested on the barrel while it was hot and got damaged insulation that way. Otherwise, shut in a door/chair rolled over it, etc. are the most plausible explanations.

[dsavitsk]

My first thought was the damaged power cable caused this although she claims it did not show any cuts or wear prior to the blowout.

The cable in the picture shows what looks like non-fire related damage -- look at the cut at the base of the burn, and the blue a bit further down. I vote for run over by a chair.