Fire Resistsnt Construction stopped a Fire from causing major damage and revealed a Product issue with Energy Saving Motion Switches.

Well it looks like Ground Hog Day once again as the push for energy saving devices are once again proving just how dangerous they are when not properly used. Just like in the late 70' During President Carters Energy Saving Attempts.

I was called to a clients property on Neville Island when they walked into the office section of the plant smelt something electrical burning and realized the Fan & Light combo unit in the mens room was on fire. They quickly turned off power to unit and the arcing and fire stopped and flame went out.
They immediately called me to plant to find out what happened and to replace the light combo unit
 I get on site and find a completely melted and combusted fan section something which should never happen  as the Shaded Pole Motors used in these units have one or both types of impedance or thermal protection . Yet here it was a fan totally consumed.

Lens and fan cover melted

I carefully took down the fan from the ceiling tile and made sure not to cause any issues with spoliation as I wanted some answers. Had it not been for the fire resistant  commercial ceiling tile and dry wall run over the wood  roof studs  This very well could have ended in tragedy especially had it been in a residential bath room. But all of the fire resistive construction and fact nothing combustible was below on the floor when embers fell  there was no further damage. An ideal situation when investigating a fire to have the whole issue isolated the way it was. I installed a new fan light combo and found the motion switch it was  attached thru was not working so I replaced it with a standard wall switch to get it working .

 But this is where it starts to get interesting I took the fan unit to an Electrical Engineer I know who does Fire Investigation and discover there are 3 possible scenarios which could have happened. Seems some of these cheaper Energy Saving  Motion Switches are being misapplicated  and are not designed to be used with combo units  and can cause problems you must make sure when purchasing an energy saving switch it is properly rated for florescent lights and fan motors some are most are not many of the motion switches also are not designed to handle florescent lights with electronic ballast only older magnetic ballast types 
Then there's the issue of  these motion switches which have a device in them known as a Triac  .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIAC 

When one of these Triac's malfunction they can send DC current into the motor causing it to catch fire.  But what was disturbing most of all apparently it is known to this manufacturer that some of these fan light units are catching fire for no reason and they are currently under investigation for possible recall. 

 So this was an accident waiting to happen. So being able to pull out the unit with out it having spoliation issues so it may be examined was definitely a bonus hopefully we will have some answers.

With all the new energy saving devices coming out for the retrofit market one must choose wisely and do there research they are buying the correct energy saving device.  Because not all construction is fire resistant and the result will be deadly if you choose incorrectly.

internals consumed by flames