The time window between first noticing an electrical burning odor and an actual electrical fire breaking out can vary wildly from a few minutes to several days or even weeks. An acrid, melting plastic smell indicates that wire insulation, electrical connectors, or motor windings are getting dangerously hot due to high resistance, arcing, or an overload; this odor can sometimes linger intermittently whenever the specific circuit is under a heavy load before the degraded insulation finally fails and sparks an open flame. Because it is impossible to predict when catastrophic failure will occur, you must treat any mysterious electrical burning smell as an immediate emergency. You can verify safety by shutting off power at the main breaker panel and investigating the source.
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