Take Precautions in Case of Fire

The first thing you should do is locate all your family members and ensure that they can leave the house quickly and easily if needed. This is a crucial step that should be taken even before you even consider fixing anything on your outlet.

Next, you should start looking for any visible flames or excessive amounts of smoke. If there are no visible signs of fire, you should carefully touch the wall around the rogue outlet to see if it is hot. Remember, you need to worry about any signs of fire first before addressing the outlet. Once you’ve confirmed that there are no signs whatsoever of any fires in your home, that’s time you can finally start focusing on the outlet. Otherwise, you should call the fire department immediately.

Turn Off Your Main Circuit

Now that there’s little to no chance of a fire starting, you should immediately locate your circuit breaker and turn it off. Doing this will keep your smoking outlet from becoming a bigger problem. You can turn off the circuit breaker for the area where the smoking outlet is from or just turn off all the breakers to your house. Cutting off all the power is perhaps the safest way to manage this. Just make sure you have a flashlight or any portable light source at hand in case it gets too dark inside. 

Once the power’s off, this is the only time you can remove anything that’s plugged into the smoking outlet. Be careful and wear something to protect your hands as the power cord may be hot. Check the wires for any signs of corrosion or damage, and make sure you don’t plug anything back into the outlet.

Contact a Licensed Electrical Contractor

A smoking outlet should be repaired by a licensed electrical contractor in your area.  Attempting to repair a fire hazard could lead to personal harm or, if the problem isn't repaired correctly, could cause a fire in the future.  By hiring a local electrician, you can rest easily knowing that the problem was repaired correctly.  

Conclusion

More often than not, a smoking outlet is not something you can fix by yourself. You can try to determine the cause and maybe do some minor DIY fixes, but that’s as far as you can go. Your priority is your own safety as well as your family’s, and it’s best to leave this to the professionals.

Trust B Town electric to provide quick and reliable electrical repair services throughout all of Western Massachusetts. Our team of licensed electricians is always ready to help you with residential, commercial, or industrial maintenance and repair. Request a quote today!