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tim43 · Nov 21, 2012, 08:00 PM

I had my hot water heater short out arc and catch on fire and my breaker did not trip un till I had to do it to stop the fire. Also my smoke detecter wich it wired into my house did not go off. Is this a violation of the N.E.C or the fire code

tkrussell · Nov 21, 2012, 09:02 PM

A circuit breaker will not trip due to certain conditions such as loose connections. These seem as a load to a CB.

tim43 · Nov 21, 2012, 09:32 PM

Connection wasn't loose the water heater shorted out then the appliance guy my property maniger sent reset the heaghter it started arcing and caught on fire.

stanfortyman · Nov 22, 2012, 04:46 AM

I had my hot water heater short out arc and catch on fire and my breaker did not trip un till I had to do it to stop the fire. Also my smoke detecter wich it wired into my house did not go off. is this a violation of the N.E.C or the fire code

Not sure why you are asking this specifically. I get the impression you are looking for someone to blame.
Not every failure or fire is caused by a code violation.

Things happen. How old is the house? Are you renting or own?
The SD could have been several things; someone turned off the breaker, backup battery died, someone unplugged it, etc.

As TK said, some arcing and other failures look like a load to a standard CB. Some older breakers were notorious for not tripping under some fault conditions.