Dippin' Dots vs Electrical Fire in Residential Fusebox  

When resident and business owner Rosie Adams and her husband woke to no power and a burnt electrical smell in her switchboard, it took only a few minutes to realise that while they had been sleeping, a fire was burning.    

‘I woke up this morning and we had no power so I went to the fuse box and I could smell smoke’. 

This is the stuff of bad dreams and nightmares. You and your family are sleeping when an electrical fire breaks out in your fuse box. Fortunately in this case, a few scorched components and some fried circuitry was the only damage.  Rosie was referred to Clancy Corporation by a friend and within 30 minutes, a qualified electrician was on site to help. 

Time was of the essence because Rosie and her husband operate Dippin’ Dots, a mobile food business selling delicious flash frozen ice-cream dots. Rosie explained...

'The dots of ice-cream are flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and kept at -41℃. In a special freezer'. 

At least two bags of ice-cream treats were depending on one of Clancy Corporation’s electricians being able to rebuild the switchboard and return the electricity in record time.

Modern standards mean the board on which the circuit breakers were mounted is fire retardant and the fuse box itself is an enclosed metal box so everything worked together to prevent the fire from spreading but we had never seen a domestic board so badly damaged.

Working quickly, the electrician was able to replace all of the melted wiring with fresh wiring and replace all of the safety switches too. The switchboard was rebuilt and brought fully up to standard in approximately 3 hrs. The best news is we checked with Rosie a few days later and discovered the ice-cream dots were saved!

See the completed switchboard below.  

For home owners concerned about their own switchboard and circuit breakers, Clancy's advice is to visually inspect your switchboard.  If you see old fashioned wire fuses instead of modern circuit breakers and safety switches OR if your board is over 20 years old, request a qualified electrician who is licensed to work on switchboards, come and inspect and upgrade your safety switches to the latest standards to protect you and your family.