Looking at the Root Cause of Electrical Appliance Fires Using Forensic X-Ray and Thermal Imaging

Commercial electrical fires are not to be taken lightly. The damage can easily creep into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially if you take into consideration time for insurance payouts, downtime on business operations, and any losses to reputation. As the hunt for liability begins, determining the causes is paramount.

At Dreiym Engineering, our licensed electrical engineers are frequently called in to investigate the circumstances. We use traditional fire methodologies as well as advanced X-ray and thermal imaging technologies to detect everything from hidden arc points to faulty wiring from a recent repair job. That is the information insurance companies, and in some cases, legal courts, require to get to the bottom of the situation.

Understanding Why Electrical Appliances Fail

There is no great mystery around appliance-related electrical fires. Even the most expertly designed, luxury commercial refrigerator can have issues with wiring, electrical loads, and overheating. In 2022 alone, appliance-related fires caused 22 deaths, 390 injuries, and over $1.5 billion in related property damage.

There are many hidden risks with appliances, including:

• Hidden arc faults waiting for a triggering event inside industrial machinery
• Overloaded circuits in a commercial space with aging infrastructure
• Failed thermal fuses in the food service equipment everyone from trucks to restaurants use
• Counterfeit or obsolete electrical components or poorly wired aftermarket parts
• Failed moisture protection in components that should remain sealed to the elements

Even something as simple as a storm can lead to failures, burned plastics, collapsed housings, and melted circuitry. That is why having expert insight into such failings is so crucial to uncovering the root cause.

Using X-Ray to See Through the Fire Damage

X-ray imaging is incredibly beneficial in post-fire forensic investigations. Using the advanced technology ensures forensic engineers can look “inside” various burned appliances and the associated electrical infrastructure. The difference is that X-ray tools don’t require taking anything apart, ensuring evidence is preserved for evaluation by both sides of the argument.

Our X-ray imaging tools help create high-resolution reports for control boards, motors, wiring harnesses, battery cells, relays, and switches. Without these tools, we’d walk into a burned space and have to dig through debris to see where conductors inside plastic insulation are severed or if there are any thermal stress points due to displaced solder.

Imagine investigating an electrical fire that started in an Austin brewery’s automated keg-washing machine. When investigators arrived, the machine’s control box was unrecognizable. With an X-ray scan, we can uncover the cause of the failed thermal fuse on the circuit board, which was due to a manufacturing defect, ensuring the brewery receives the payout they are due, all while maintaining the chain of custody for fragile evidence.

The Role of Thermal Imaging in Electrical Fire Investigation

Thermal imaging works differently than X-ray technology. Our electrical engineers rely on this tool for site inspections and lab analysis. It helps point out residual heat concentrations (especially around short circuits or overheating elements), temperature variations, and any heat signatures in comparative appliances for deeper analysis.

X-ray is best used for structural issues, where thermal imaging demonstrates how components behave under load or post-incident stress. So if you consider the same brewery example, a thermal imaging tool would compare one faulty unit against an identical, functioning one. The working washer would demonstrate even heat distribution, while the failed unit, even in a cold state, can display residual heat in places it shouldn’t be, like the base of a control board.

Having both X-ray and thermal imaging tools ensures we can verify our conclusions based on years of experience investigating electrical appliance fires. It validates information that can then be used by legal experts, courts, insurance adjusters, and business owners.

The Multi-Layered Dreiym Approach

While we love trumpeting our successes with cutting-edge and specialty technologies, we don’t rely solely on their use. Forensic engineering is systematic. It requires context and correlation that only the human mind can bring into focus. That is why we pair our tools with visual inspections, looking at soot patterns or burn indicators as well as schematic analysis, material science, witness interviews, and event logs.

A holistic approach to investigations ensures nothing is left unanswered. We want to create a scenario where we are as close to 100% confirmation of a root cause as possible. We know this is essential because of the years spent as expert consultants for a variety of legal cases with some of the most well-known companies in Texas.

Case Study: Electrical Fire in a Manufacturing Facility’s Conveyor System

Let’s take this multi-layered approach to electrical fire investigations a step further with a unique case study. Consider a mid-sized packaging company in Dallas. They recently experienced an unexpected electrical fire that paused operations, causing over $250,000 in property damages.

From what our team and witness statements infer, the blaze began somewhere around the motor housing of an automated conveyor line. That is what the company uses to move sealed product boxes from manufacturing to shipping. When the insurance adjuster arrived, they suspected employee misuse or poor maintenance, but the system was only two years old, meaning surface-level evidence probably didn’t tell the whole story.

With X-ray technology, we were able to scan the conveyor’s control module and motor housing. Inside the charred remains, we identified a failed solder joint on a relay connected to the variable frequency drive (VFD). There were clear signs of progressive thermal stress long before the fire began.

However, we wanted to be sure so the insurance company could base its resulting payout on verifiable results. That is why we also used thermal imaging to compare one conveyor motor to another that was still in service. The difference showed abnormal heat signatures during low-load operation, matching the failure point of the fixture. This provided a larger, systemic issue and verified our results.

Cases like this are crucial because it shifts liability from an employee issue or misuse of an appliance to the manufacturers, installers, and insurance providers. Without X-ray and thermal imaging, the fire would have otherwise been written off, causing even more downtime to the business.

When to Bring in a Forensic Electrical Engineering Firm

In many cases, using a fire investigator from the town, city, or county is enough to diagnose the root issue of the situation. Commercial fires are a bit different though. If a problem is misdiagnosed, the liability can lead to heavy fines, recovery expenses, and lost market share.

Instead, it is wise to call in a professional team like ours at Dreiym Engineering for situations like:

• Any electrical fire involving commercial equipment, motors, generators, or VFDs
• Damage that easily exceeds $50K
• When there are insurance disputes about origin or liability
• There is potential for manufacturer defects or counterfeit parts
• Evidence requires special handling and expertise in preservation and documentation

Our electrical engineers have spent decades working with insurance adjusters, attorneys, and property owners. We know how to capture the relevant data so you can get a clearer picture of what happened, who is responsible, and how to prevent it in the future.

To learn more about how Dreiym Engineering can help with appliance failures or electrical fires in a commercial space, contact our team. We will use a variety of well-known and verifiable methods to ensure you get an answer to what happened so you can move forward and adapt.