A squirrel got into the transformer infront of our house. It blew the transformer and one of the main power lines from the pole fell on our supply line to the house. It sent a major surge into the house. It caught the breaker panel on fire, some outlets, switches and light socket on fire too. The police, firefighters and electric company guys all said the whole house would need to be rewired. We have an electrician looking at it (who had just replace the electric panel the week before) he is trying to decide if the house will need to rewired or not. I've been trying to find something on the internet like this but have had no luck. Do you think the whole house will need to be rewired?
Thank you!!!
Best Answer
Your local, on site electrician will best assess this, but in all likelihood, yes, you need to replace all the wiring (and your insurance company or the utility company should be footing the bill - your insurance company will probably turn around and get the money from the utility company, it's truly their fault.)
Why? When you have had an overvoltage condition of such magnitude that:
The problem is not resolved when the overvoltage goes away and the fire is put out, because every place that arced now has a lovely "carbon track" where it's supposed to have insulation - and carbon is a conductor - a lousy one, but plenty to cause problems. Once a carbon track forms, it's very easy to have repeated arcs at much lower voltages.
Typical household wiring is 600V insulation - yours was exposed to likely 1100-2400V depending on the local system.
In addition, you may well have damage at places you cannot see inside the walls. You're lucky the house did not burn down.
So - not only the wiring, but also the receptacles, switches, and pretty much everything that was connected to them is now highly suspect and should be replaced.