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Electrical Fires: A Shocking Topic
NPS employees get the opportunity to work in historic old buildings, often displaying NPS character with wooden floors that squeak and a familiar musty ranger station smell. Many were built before the electrical typewriter was a common office item. Today, we have computers, monitors, printers, scanners, and more all gang plugged into the only outlet close enough to our desks or we have been forced to run an extension cord from another part of the building.
We know that statistically electrical fire is a large cause of structure fires throughout the United States and the National Park Service has seen their share. Is your park next?
What can we do? The obvious long term solutions are work orders to upgrade our electrical systems. But as we all know that will not solve the problem quickly.
Let's learn how to avoid the next devastating loss. Look to the take action section to find things you can do now. |
Just for You
Employees:
We are asking you the employee to take action, to look for electrical fire hazards, in your office and in your home. Nobody knows these areas better than you do. Be an advocate, be proactive, and take action. Learn more about electrical hazards.
Park Leadership:
Responding properly to employee concerns of electrical hazards will help ensure your park is not the next one to lose a treasured historic building.
Take action, make sure all reports receive a proper Risk Assessment Code. The Risk Assessment Code for worn or frayed wiring should be reported as very high, a 1 or 2, as the probability of a fire starting is likely and the severity catastrophic. Until the hazard is fixed, take action on interim control measures.
National/Regional Leadership:
We can ensure that electrical hazards in our buildings are identified and corrected by using a comprehensive inspection program conducted by trained professionals.
Regional leaders can help by promoting training for park employees and by developing strategies that promote accountability.
The structural fire program has an annual inspections web page that will make it easy for parks and regions to see their progress in conducting these annual inspections. |
