UPDATE: Electrics Risk exposed after Flat Fire

Watford Housing Tennant says electrical fault Flat Fire in Leavesden.

It has now been revealed by the victim, that the fire was caused by an electrical fault, yet nothing was done to protect other tenants. However the Housing Association deny this, their reply is lower down in this article.

When a vulnerable tenant was posting on a Facebook group about his plug sockets he was told it would overload.   But he thought this was rubbish and posted a photo of his control box which protected by RCD trip switch.   But then received a reply saying it is an old edition and did not have the New ARC protection.

After searching google he found an article on the new wiring regulations for housing providers.

It reads “The 18th edition has introduced a new protective device that is recommended for the purpose of providing additional protection against fire caused by arc faults in AC final circuits. This device is an Arc Fault detection Device or AFDD.  AFDDs can detect faults that MCBs, RCDs and RCBOs cannot detect.”

It has been nearly five years since the tenant’s electrical box was inspected before the new requirements came into place.

A spokesperson for WCHT replied in an email, “I can clarify that the fire was not a result of faulty electrics.”

“Due to GDPR regulations, we are unable to discuss incidents that have occurred in another customers home – for this reason, we will not engage with you further on this topic.
I would like to reassure you that rather than Watford Community Housing “failing to be transparent”, we are unable to discuss certain aspects of the incident due to data protection. “