Fireproofing Your Electronics: How to Prevent Device and Facility Fires

How Common Are Electrical and Electronic Fires, and Are They Increasing?

Electrical fires remain one of the most consistent causes of property damage in the United States, with the National Fire Protection Association identifying electrical distribution and lighting equipment as a recurring factor in home structure fires every year. NFPA’s “Home Electrical Fires” research shows these incidents cause hundreds of civilian deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in direct property damage annually.

The trend isn’t accelerating because wiring is getting worse. It’s accelerating because plug load is. Offices, warehouses, and homes now run more chargers, more power strips, and more lithium-ion battery devices per outlet than at any point in the past two decades. The U.S. Fire Administration has flagged this rising electronic device density as a contributing factor in fire incident reports, particularly where portable electronics and charging equipment are involved. More devices sharing the same circuits means more opportunities for overloaded strips, degraded cords, and battery failures to go unnoticed until they ignite.

None of this makes fire inevitable. It means the risk is quantifiable, well-studied, and largely addressable through habits and equipment choices that most facilities and households simply haven’t updated to match their current device load.

What Everyday Habits Actually Start Most Electrical Fires

The majority of electrical fires trace back to a small set of repeatable behaviors: overloaded power strips, extension cords used as permanent wiring, and damaged cords left in service. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has repeatedly cited extension cords and power strips among the top consumer products associated with fire hazards, largely because they’re rated for temporary, light-duty use but get pressed into permanent, heavy-duty service.

Three patterns show up again and again in fire investigation reports:

• Daisy-chaining power strips. Plugging one strip into another multiplies the load on a single wall outlet far beyond what the circuit or the strip’s internal components were designed to handle.
• Running cords under rugs or through doorways. Foot traffic and repeated flexing wear down insulation invisibly, and heat has nowhere to dissipate when a cord is covered.
• Using extension cords as substitutes for outlets. The National Fire Protection Association’s electrical safety guidance is explicit that extension cords are meant for temporary use, not as a long-term fix for insufficient outlets in an office or warehouse floor.

The fix costs almost nothing: audit cord runs quarterly, retire anything with cracked insulation or exposed wire immediately, and treat any outlet strip that feels warm to the touch as a signal to unplug and inspect, not ignore.

How Should Lithium-Ion Devices Be Charged Safely in a Workplace?

Lithium-ion batteries power phones, laptops, handheld scanners, and increasingly power tools and robotics equipment on warehouse floors. When they fail, they fail differently than a standard electrical short: thermal runaway can produce a self-sustaining chemical fire that’s difficult to extinguish with water alone. The National Fire Protection Association and the Consumer Product Safety Commission both track lithium-ion incidents separately from general electrical fires because the failure mode and required response are distinct.

Three charging habits meaningfully reduce risk in a workplace setting. Charge devices on hard, non-combustible surfaces rather than on carpet, bedding-like material, or paper-covered desks. Avoid charging overnight or unattended in areas without smoke detection, particularly in break rooms or equipment closets where a fire could smolder for hours before anyone notices. And never charge a battery that’s visibly swollen, cracked, or has been dropped hard, since physical damage to the internal cell separator is a leading precursor to thermal runaway according to CPSC incident data.

For facilities managing fleets of handheld scanners, tablets, or battery-powered tools, dedicated charging stations away from combustible storage, with spacing between units, give any single battery failure room to vent without igniting neighboring devices. This matters more in warehouses than offices, since scanner and tool charging carts are often tucked into narrow staging areas next to cardboard and shrink wrap.

What to Look for When Buying Power Strips and Surge Protectors

Not all power strips are surge protectors, and the difference matters for fire risk. A basic power strip only adds outlets; a surge protector is engineered to divert excess voltage. Underwriters Laboratories publishes UL 1449 specifically as the safety standard for surge protective devices, and a genuine UL 1449 listing (not just a UL-adjacent logo) is the single most reliable indicator that a unit has been tested for overvoltage and overheating conditions.

Beyond the UL mark, check the amperage rating against actual load. A strip rated for 15 amps overloaded by three space heaters or several monitor power supplies will run hot long before it trips a breaker. Look for a built-in circuit breaker or thermal fuse, which cuts power before components overheat, and avoid strips with visibly frayed cords, missing outlet covers, or resistance when a plug is inserted.

Replace surge protectors after any known power event (a lightning strike, a brownout, a visible spark) since the internal components that absorb voltage spikes degrade with each event, even when the unit still appears to work normally.

Protecting Data Centers, Control Rooms, and Robotics or Automation Hubs

Facilities running server racks, control rooms, or robotics and automation cells face a different category of risk than a typical office, because the equipment itself is dense, expensive, and often runs continuously without direct human oversight. The National Fire Protection Association addresses this specifically through NFPA 75, its standard for fire protection of information technology equipment, which covers everything from room construction and cable management to detection and suppression system design for server and equipment rooms.

Standard sprinkler systems are often a poor fit for these spaces, since water damage to server racks or robotics controllers can be as costly as fire damage itself. NFPA 75 and related guidance from NFPA 76 (telecommunications facilities) support the use of early-warning detection, such as very early smoke detection apparatus (VESDA) systems that sample air continuously and flag smoldering conditions long before visible smoke appears, paired with clean-agent suppression systems that extinguish fire without leaving residue or requiring equipment teardown afterward.

For facilities that can’t justify a full engineered suppression system, three lower-cost steps close much of the gap: maintain clear separation between IT/robotics equipment and combustible storage, keep cable runs organized and off the floor to prevent chafing, and ensure HVAC and room temperature stay within the equipment manufacturer’s rated range, since chronic overheating shortens the life of both batteries and power supplies and increases failure likelihood.

Building a Facility-Wide Electrical Fire Prevention Routine

Individual good habits matter, but facilities that consistently avoid electrical fires treat prevention as a recurring maintenance task, not a one-time purchase decision. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s electrical safety standards (29 CFR 1910 Subpart S) require employers to maintain electrical equipment in safe condition, which in practice means a documented inspection cadence rather than a reactive one.

A workable routine for most commercial and warehouse facilities includes a quarterly walk-through checking cord condition and outlet strip load, an annual review of any newly added equipment against existing circuit capacity, and immediate removal from service of any device or cord showing heat discoloration, cracking, or an unusual smell. Facilities with battery charging stations, server rooms, or robotics cells should add a documented review of NFPA 75 or equivalent detection and suppression coverage whenever equipment density in those areas increases.

None of this requires exotic equipment or major capital spend for most spaces. It requires treating plug load, battery charging, and cable management with the same seriousness facilities already apply to structural and life-safety systems.