Imagine waking up to a big bang in the middle of the night and find your air-conditioner plug socket smoking.
Many home fires are caused by cooking, careless tossing of cigarettes and electric short circuits, specially during the summer when the demand for power is higher.
Technicians say they have had to fix many such burnouts at homes and the culprits are the low-quality plugs, adaptors and sockets in the market.
Khalifa Al Danen, a UAE national in Khor Khowair told Gulf News he has had to change the plug sockets about five times so far.
Vivek Gyawali, a salesman at a hardware store in Dubai, said the blow-outs occur when people buy low quality plug adaptors. The cheaper ones cost about Dh2 and do not have an embedded fuse. The quality ones sell for about Dh8.
Many people also do not know that an air-conditioner and a tea kettle consume a lot of power and require adaptors with 13 amps.
In Ras Al Khaimah, technicians claimed that good quality adaptors are not available in the market.
A municipal official said that the issue has come to the municipality's notice. "Our inspectors will bring this issue up at the coming Municipal Council meeting," he said.
Most of the stores in Dubai do not sell the low quality adaptors, but one can purchase them at corner groceries. Gyawali said its suppliers can only import adaptors into the UAE which have a particular connectivity code.
One salesperson at Choithram's said municipal inspectors make periodic surprise visits to check on the products.
"We don't sell low quality goods," he said. "If we start doing that, our customers will not trust us."
Another salesperson of kitchen appliances said so far his company has had no complaints about burn-outs. "Most of our customers are educated and know about safety."
The salesperson said that most of the new buildings also have power breakers which trip in case of short-circuits.
Domestic fires outnumber any other type of fires in the UAE. According to Dubai Civil Defence, 103 fires were reported in 2002 alone.
"Residents tend to over-use electrical appliances and air-conditioners in summer to cool off," it said in a report. "Overloading of domestic appliances or using too many the same time results in short-circuits."
There are not many insurance companies in the UAE which cover home fires. One insurance agent in Sharjah said it does not cover home fires. Such a coverage is very rare in the UAE. "It's normally the Europeans who want the coverage," the agent said.
According to other insurance agents, fire claims so far this year have crossed Dh100 million.
But these figures are for warehouses and industrial units and big insurance companies are often reluctant to provide domestic coverage because of keen competition and the subsequent low rates for residential units and shopping markets.
One insurance broker said his company fully covers accidental fires at homes even if they are caused by faulty adaptors, sockets and plugs.
But before a policy is issued, the home is properly surveyed and recommendations are made to change any faulty plugs and sockets, he said.
How to keep your home safe from fire
Here are a few precautions as advised by the Civil Defence: * Don't overload the electrical sockets in your home
* Always switch off the electrical appliance after use
* Use appliances which have three-pin plugs (the third pin grounds the device)
* Never insert naked wires into an electrical socket
* Do not touch electrical appliances with wet hands
* Do not run wires under a carpet or in high-traffic areas of homes
Gulf News
