A warehouse fire changed how I run my backup wires

I had a job in Cleveland last fall where a old warehouse had a small electrical fire in the ceiling. The alarm tripped fine but the fire melted all the thin zip ties holding my cable runs. Now I only use metal conduit for any wire running near breaker panels or HVAC units. The extra cost per job is about $40 but it beats replacing a whole system. Has anyone else run into issues with heat damaging their low voltage wiring?

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emma_burns961mo ago

Found myself in a similar spot last year on a school retrofit. Had some cheap nylon ties holding up sensor wires near a rooftop unit and they just turned to brittle garbage after one summer. Swapped everything over to stainless steel straps with a heat shield and haven't looked back since lol.

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mila_reed1mo ago

Yeah that heat thing is no joke. I had a buddy who thought he was being smart and used those anti-static bags to wrap his cable bundles near a boiler room. Six months later the bags had basically melted into the wires and he had to cut out like fifty feet of cat5. Now he just puts everything in EMT and calls it a day. The forty bucks is worth it when you think about how much a service call costs later.

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