Yes. I stayed with a family, renting a room in a finished attic in Cambridge years ago as a student. These are old buildings, with old electrical wiring etc. - unless updated to code. I've grew up in the city, and have lived in several, and it always seems that this time of year (holidays, Christmas) there were often fires in old buildings. Don't know why. Wiring overloaded by holiday lighting? Christmas trees on fire? Very sad. Worst time of the year for this.
All of the above. We’ve had fire after fire this last year. It seems as though we’ve had one or more a week. When times are bad, some owners will burn the place down and take the insurance. Poor tenants may use space heaters, hot plates and candles. It’s cold here in winter.
Back when these structures were built or got electricity, the power bill was called the “light bill”.
That is about all the load these systems could handle when new. and no electrical wiring gets better with age/
Now people are pulling max load on these systems due to all the consumer electronics (giant flat TVs are energy hogs), resistance heaters, and whatever they can plug in the wall.
I have seen and worked on some wiring from the 50s, and it is downright scary.