I was listening to the news. Many houses caught fire because
Of fire that started inside the wall. I though the wiring was encased
Inside a conduit pipe, and shouldn't the breaker trip besides?

Older homes use Knob & Tube wiring, open wires on insulator, popular cause of fires.

Most homes are done with some sort of cable, Romex or BX. Some homes in certain areas such as Chicago, are done with conduit, but not many areas require conduit.

Most fires may be caused by loose connection in outlet boxes, if they are not istalled proerly, or have openings n boxes is another popular cause of fires.

Breakers will only trip if it is a short between hot and neutral or ground. Not all situations that have loose connections will cause a breaker to trip.

A loose connection that heats up becomes another load for the breaker, it does not know that it is a problem.

Hope this answers your question. Others I am sure can offer many other ideas.

Very interesting.These people in West Virginia did smell a funny smell for three days
Before the house caught fire.

Something was "cooking" in the walls.

Had they had it checked out before...

Poor people lost everything thanks

TK
You aren't mentioning arc fault breakers.
Don't like them?

I just hope it doesn't happen to me. The news never goes into detail about what
Might have caused the fire . Inside a wall that is scary

Let's wait and see what TK says about arc fault breakers.
I have had two of them for about two years now without any problems and they are on heavily used circuits but I know there has been controversy about them, and he will fill us in on them when he returns.
Here is some info about them:
http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/PDF...terrupters.pdf

Yes I see them. 15 amp and 20amp do not see 30 AMP like for a dryer.
A bit pricey at $37.97 a pop. Lets wait on TK