Hubby and I bought a home that was built in 1969 and it had some remodeling done to it since then but nothing major was done with the wiring. We can tell it's old wiring. Anyhow, all the switches in the house make a crackling sound when turned on or off (it happens when the switches are in the middle and I usually hear it if I turn the switch on slowly or off slowly.) I had heard it was called an arc or something like that but tonight I pulled the ceiling fan chain to get some air circulating and it made a popping sound like it was arcing too! It scares me! I think they've been doing it ever since we bought the house nearly 6 years ago but I finally realized that they all do it. We replaced 2 in the hall but now they are doing it again. I don't know what to do and I'm so nervous about fires as I have a bunch of smaller children. Please help!

Call a licensed electrician and have your situation evaluated, don't take chances with something that could cause a fire. If these are original switches they probably need to be replaced.

The switches are simply worn out, and need to be replaced.

This problem is not usually a serious fire hazard, the switches will simply stop working eventually.