By accident, I dropped a stainless steel thin wire across an outlet plug. The plug was in use by the lamp. The non-insulated wire touched the hot side of the exposed (lamp) plug connection and created a high current fault. Though the current flow was not across hot-to-neutral, but through the length of the wire (about 100'). The wire lite up like nichrome (heating) wire, or a heater, but did not trip the breaker. This caused a major fire by igniting the textile sofa next to the wall outlet. In seconds, flames were touching the ceiling. This happended in a high-rise on Michigan Ave, Chicago in the 70s. I now have a good appreciation and reason for orienting the ground lug on the outlet toward the topside. What was the wire for? It was a long wire short wave antenna that was hung out the window. It worked great until the great fire.
