I recently encountered a fire that appears to have originated when an undetermined condition, caused a catastrophic failure of the internal electrical conductors at the female end of a 16-3 extension cord. The cord which had three outlets, ejected molten buss material from the center outlet, igniting nearby lightweight material.
The right and left outlets were occupied by appliances. The center outlet was empty. I am told by engineers that the two items plugged into the side outlets did not create an overload condition. We have not been able to locate exemplar cords. Has anyone encountered a similar failure?