Dear All

Just investigated a fire in the past week where the only available ignition source was a table lamp. Being reluctant to blame what should be an innocent household item I asked the homeowner for more details about the lamp.

Apparently the lamp had only been bought in the past couple of weeks from a well known high street store and it is clear from the website that it should be fitted with a standard 60 watt bulb, although the homeowner had fitted an energy efficient bulb (details of exact type not available but believe it was approximately 5 amp with advertised equivalence of a 60 watt bulb).

Not sure what effect this would have and any advice or previous experience would be useful. The room of origin had been unattended for approximately 30 minutes, prior to a fully established fire being discovered.

Initials thoughts are a faulty lamp (it came with a factory fitted 10 amp fuse that had blown) although it may be worth noting that a cat was in the room of origin and I can't discount the cat knocking over the lamp as a cause of the fire. However, I am not sure that an energy efficient lightbulb would generate sufficient heat to initiate such a serious fire in the time available (I would expect a smouldering fire to have activated the nearby smoke detectors before the fire became fully developed). The property was fitted with single point ionisation detectors, that alerted the homeowner (who was awake in another part of the property), but only after the fire had already fully established.

I have considered deliberate ignition and smokers materials but there were no smokers at the property and there was nothing suspicious about the circumstances or the people involved, other than a fire starting from what should be a relatively benign source.

Any views, opinions or experience of fires involving energy efficient light bulbs would be much appreciated.