Thursday 5 October 2017

Could your home be at risk of fire from dodgy cables?

Dangerous, fire-starting cables could allegedly have been installed in homes and businesses across the UK.

As much as 11 million metres of the non-compliant cables are said to have been brought to the UK market by Atlas Kablo, a Turkish firm that has now ceased trading, according to a BBC investigation.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) decided against a compulsory recall and only seven million metres of the cable were recovered after it wrote to wholesalers and warned them about the product.

The remainder reportedly remains unaccounted for - the cable, which is said to be able to reach dangerous temperatures of 150℃, could be used to fully rewire as many as 8,000 houses.

The British Approvals Service for Cables (BASEC) found the cables were at risk of overheating because it did not contain enough copper.

A spokesperson for HSE told ELN: "After the cabling failed independent tests, we worked with the Approved Cables Initiative and BASEC to ensure that Atlas Kablo took steps to withdraw or recall the cabling from the market voluntarily.

"As a result, we understand that many millions of metres of the non-compliant cabling was taken off the market."