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<\/p>\nA Victorian coroner has warned about the dangers of power boards after a fatal house fire in regional Victoria was linked to an electrical fault.<\/p>\n
The coroner investigated the death of 77-year-old Carisbrook man Christopher Shaw, who died when fire tore through his Central Victorian home in the early hours of July 17, 2025.<\/p>\n
Firefighters were called to the property about 1am, where they extinguished the blaze and discovered Mr Shaw deceased inside the house.<\/p>\n
A forensic examination found the fire most likely began in a sunroom where several computers were plugged into power boards.<\/p>\n
Victoria Police forensic officer Kristen Cameron identified one melted power board and another that had been destroyed in the fire.<\/p>\n
“The pattern of burning and fire damage indicated that the fire started around the desk in the sunroom and spread to the other rooms of the house,” Ms Cameron said.<\/p>\n
Investigators determined the most likely source of ignition was an electrical fault involving a power board.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There have been 26 deaths involving fires caused by an electrical fault since 2015, five of which were due to faulty power boards. (ABC Everyday: Rachel Rasker\/Luke Tribe)<\/p>\n
Not an isolated incident<\/p>\n
In her findings, Coroner Leveasque Peterson said the tragedy highlighted a broader safety issue facing Victorian households.<\/p>\n
Data from the Coroners Prevention Unit identified 26 deaths since January 2015 where an electrical fault was confirmed as the source of a house fire.<\/p>\n
In five of those cases, including Mr Shaw’s, a power board was suspected or confirmed to be the source of the fault.<\/p>\n
“Christopher’s death is yet another tragic reminder of the dangers associated with electrical faults in power boards, particularly when overused or overloaded,” Ms Peterson said.<\/p>\n
Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) data also painted a concerning picture, recording an average of 3.6 power-board-related fires each month between June 2024 and January 2026.<\/p>\n
“Fires due to power boards occur indiscriminately and can have catastrophic consequences,” Ms Peterson said.<\/p>\n
The investigation found that power board fires became more common during winter, when electricity demand in homes typically increased.<\/p>\n
FRV recorded 14 power-board-related fires during winter 2024, compared with six over the following summer.<\/p>\n
The coroner noted that Mr Shaw’s death also occurred in the middle of winter.<\/p>\n
Energy Safe Victoria also reinforced the importance of electrical safety in the home.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the court, Energy Safe Victoria’s Michelle McCorkell urged consumers to buy electrical products from reputable suppliers.<\/p>\n
“Purchase reputable brands from reputable suppliers and avoid suspiciously cheap products or unknown online retailers,” Ms McCorkell said.<\/p>\n
She also encouraged Victorians to regularly inspect electrical equipment and replace any damaged power boards, leads or appliances before they become a safety risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Victorian coroner has warned about the dangers of power boards after a fatal house fire in regional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,31348,14339,31349,26352,31350,844,19064,3054,23901],"class_list":["post-37431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-christopher-shaw","tag-coroner","tag-coroners-prevention-unit","tag-electrical","tag-energy-safe-victoria","tag-fire","tag-fire-rescue-victoria","tag-house-fire","tag-power-board"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}