05:09 17-12-2025

Outlets melting with power off in Veliky Novgorod apartment

Generated by DALL·E

An apartment in Veliky Novgorod saw outlets and a bulb smolder with power off. Experts suspect aging wiring, bad joints, or leakage currents. What to check.

A nighttime scare in an apartment building in Veliky Novgorod put even seasoned electricians on edge. A young family woke in the middle of the night to a sharp smell of burning: a bulb had flared up in a light fixture that was switched off. Later it became clear the smoldering started along the edges of the housing, as if the fire had crept out from inside.

The homeowners now take turns staying up, wary of a repeat, and for a second day have been working with specialists to understand what is behind the strange flare-ups.

When equipment burns without a load

Normally, having no devices switched on is a safety net. Yet in this case not only the lamp but also outlets and switches showed signs of ignition.

Residents said every element was de-energized:

• the switches were in the down position,
• the outlets were not passthrough,
• no consumers were connected.

The hardware is Schneider; the cabling is GOST VVGng-LS 2×1.5 and 2.5 mm². The voltage is stable at 224 V.

Even so, plastic parts began to melt and char, and in some spots damage was visible inside the junction boxes.

Suspicion falls on old wiring

The apartment sits in a communal block where two eras of wiring meet: some lines were replaced recently, while others remain from decades ago. The preliminary view from specialists is that, at certain joints between the new and the old, hidden processes could be occurring that a multimeter won’t catch. On paper the voltage looks clean, but localized heating at connection points cannot be ruled out. The working theory sounds plausible, but it still leaves uncomfortable gaps.

In search of an explanation

The cause remains murky: spontaneous melting of outlets and bulbs with no load is exceedingly rare. The family is gathering advice, and electricians continue to inspect each line.

Specialists who have faced similar incidents suggest several possibilities:

• degradation of old aluminum wiring in concealed sections;
• oxidation of contacts leading to localized overheating;
• insulation breakdown at joints between old and new cables;
• hidden leakage currents that household instruments fail to detect.

So far, none of these hypotheses has been confirmed.

Why cases like this are worth discussing

For most apartments the threat feels distant, but episodes like this show that faults can surface where no one expects them. Even modern fittings and stable voltage don’t eliminate risk if aging conductors remain inside the walls. It’s hard to shake the feeling that this is a blind spot many homes share.

Sharing experience among professionals could help prevent similar incidents in other buildings.