Too High Voltage?

[cletus8269]

I wonder how long it will take for the negative PR wheels to start turning on this one...

BARKHAMSTED, Conn. -- Fire officials suspect an electric hybrid car may have sparked an overnight blaze in a garage in Barkhamsted on Center Hill Road.

Homeowner Storm Connors and his wife, Dee, said they awoke to the sound of a smoke alarm around 4 a.m. The couple said they have lived in the home for nearly 40 years. They built it and raised their children there, so when the flames took over their attached garage Thursday morning, burning it down to its beams, the couple started to panic. They said they were worried they were going to lose their home and the memories inside.

"I walked outside and looked in the garage door and it was flaming," Dee Connors said. "I grabbed a pocketbook so I'd have a cellphone and a driver's license and a jacket and a pair of slacks. I had no shoes, my feet were freezing."

Within minutes of the 911 call reporting the fire, nearly 50 firefighters from surrounding communities headed to the scene.

The Connors family said that response and the fact there was a firewall built between the home and the garage saved their home.

After the fire was extinguished, the couple invited Eyewitness News into the home to see how effective the firewall was. Even the coats in a closet near the fire were unscathed -- not even blackened by smoke.

Now investigators with the state fire marshal's office and the couple's insurance company are looking into what exactly in the garage sparked the fire.

Officials said they can't rule out that the couple's brand new Chevy Volt hybrid had something to do with the blaze.

The fire is under investigation.

http://www.wfsb.com/news/27541598/detail.html

[Drew Dowdell]

I could see faulty wiring for the plug in causing the problem, but unlikely the car itself.

I couldn't have a Volt at my house without seriously upgrading my electrical service if I wanted the 4 hour charger. I'm still on 60 amp fuses.

[SAmadei]

I could see faulty wiring for the plug in causing the problem, but unlikely the car itself.

I couldn't have a Volt at my house without seriously upgrading my electrical service if I wanted the 4 hour charger. I'm still on 60 amp fuses.

Agreed. No house 40 years old is going to have the infrastructure to recharge a Volt quickly without upgrades, unless it was owned by Nikola Tesla himself. I'm a little iffy running my MIG on the '76 vintage junk in my house.

Actually, 40 year old electrical is probably the low point... as a lot of houses have aluminum wiring. I'm sure the Volt recharger could overwhelm weak CU-Al contact points easily.