[SarahW]

Looks more like an electrical fire, overheated wires, circuits, or appliance(s).

The breaker might not have tripped in time to prevent fire from an overloaded circuit or electrical fault in an appliance. The breaker eventually tripped, but the wiring or appliance could have been hot enough to ignite or had already ignited because.

Ask Mrs CN if the breakers tripped often. If this happened a lot, the circuits were chronically overloaded and they could have been damaged over time.


Any appliance on the tripped circuits that was in the area would be suspect. Without a wiring diagram its impossible to do anything but speculate, but a TV, a water heater, a dryer, anything that drew current from wires that went through the dining room is suspect.

I'm thinking Herb maybe caught fire or was burned, and he rushed to the bathroom ...only to be overcome by smoke.

[SarahW]

If Mrs CN went to take a bath, then the water heater probably switched on about that time.

Was CN's computer or TV on the same circuit?

I think there might have been a TV in the dining room.

[Barnacle]

The breakers could have tripped due to heat from the fire melting the insulation causing the wires to short out.

[meyer]

It would not be unusual to have tripped breakers at a fire scene such as this. As the fire heated the wires, the insulation would quickly melt and the conductors would short together, tripping the breaker.

One thing that might be more important is if a breaker failed to trip when there was a high-impedance fault or overload. This condition would result in a heated condition that could ignite a fire, though it would be within the wall and, I would think (and this is pure opinion here), a rather slow fire to develop. It might also have caused more structural damage such as it burned internally before being discovered.