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Replacing an electric panel can cost about $2,000, but those who have lost a home to fire say it’s better to pay now than later.

already purchased a replacement. He just hadn’t gotten around to installing it yet.

“I lost everything in that fire, and almost my life,” he says.

These types of electrical fires spread remarkably fast, Graham says, because the panels are often located in the garage, “where you keep lawn mowers and gasoline and all of your most flammable items.”

Many other panels are in closets, also a source of kindle such as clothing and Christmas decorations.

Like Clardy, Keith Graham feels obligated to share his experience with anyone who will listen.

“I’ve had at least 30 panels in the neighborhood replaced because of my story,” he says. “These things are ticking time bombs, and if I saw one in someone’s home, didn’t warn them and something happened to them, I couldn’t live with myself.”

Clardy and Graham’s anecdotal evidence is alarming, but there are no hard statistics when it comes to how many FPE panels cause house fires because fire investigators typically report electricity-caused fires as “electrical malfunction”. It would be rare for an investigator to take note of the brand on the electrical panel, Section Chief James Adams of the Dallas Fire and Rescue Fire Investigation Division says.

Antos, whose company has replaced “hundreds, maybe thousands” of panels in the Dallas area, says that it would be unfair to call FPE-caused fires “common”.

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“Statistically, there might have been five fires [in the Dallas area] in the last 10 years,” he says. “I don’t want to scare people, but if there was one in my house, I would get it replaced.”

Antos notes that homeowners who have an FPE panel but can’t replace it can do a few things to make the home safer: Have someone look at the breaker box once a year. Make sure it is working and that the breakers are tight. Every few months, flip the breakers on and off — it may help to unlock the components that prevent it from tripping.

Still, your best bet, Antos says, is to have a qualified electrician replace the panel.

Clardy and Graham agree.

“You can pay now,” Clardy says, “or you might pay later.”