Bad Electrician Almost Burned Down a Brampton Home | GetAHomePro
How One Bad Electrician Almost Burned Down a Brampton Home
·10 min read
J
James KowalskiMaster Electrician
Published March 20, 2026
Key Takeaway
A Brampton family hired an unlicensed electrician to wire their basement. Two months later, the fire department found melting wires inches from their son's bed.
I've been sitting on this story for a while. Not because I didn't want to tell it — but because every time Deshawn got to a certain part, he'd just stop talking.
You'll understand when we get there.
They Did Everything Right
Deshawn and Keisha bought their townhouse on Brisdale Drive in April 2024. Brampton, near Countryside Drive — that stretch of semi-detached homes with the good schools and the Tim Hortons on every corner.
It's a 1994 build. Solid bones, decent layout, but the basement was unfinished. Bare concrete, exposed joists, a single hanging bulb.
Their plan was straightforward. Finish it properly. A media room on one side, a proper home office for Keisha on the other — she does medical transcription from home and was working off the kitchen table with two kids under eight running circles around her.
They budgeted $40,000 for the full basement reno. Framing, drywall, flooring, the works. The electrical was one piece of it.
Jay
The Facebook group is called "Brampton Homeowners & Neighbours." Around 14,000 members. People post lost cats, recommend plumbers, complain about parking. You know the type.
Deshawn posted in early May asking for electrician recommendations for a basement finishing job. He got seventeen replies in two hours.
Jay's name came up four times. "Fast, fair price, great work." "He did my panel upgrade, no complaints." "Jay's your guy."
Deshawn messaged him. Jay responded in 22 minutes — which felt like a good sign.
No website. Facebook page with 209 followers and about a dozen photos of breaker panels and finished basement lighting. Nothing that screamed warning. Nothing that screamed anything, really.
"He seemed legit. People we knew had used him. What else were we supposed to check?"
Jay came out on a Saturday, walked the basement, said he could do it all: twelve potlights, seven outlets including a dedicated 20-amp circuit for Keisha's office equipment, a dedicated circuit for the media room. Everything up to code, he said.
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For that scope? That's low. Not insultingly low — just below market. Deshawn googled around and found quotes ranging from $3,800 to $5,500 for similar work. He figured Jay's low overhead explained it. No company truck. Works alone.
They said yes. Jay started the following Tuesday.
Three Days, Clean Work
He finished in three days. June 3rd through June 5th, 2024.
Deshawn was around for most of it. Jay was quiet, efficient. Ran wire, installed boxes, connected the panel. The potlights looked sharp. The outlets were flush and tight.
Everything looked clean.
Deshawn e-transferred the $3,200 on June 5th at 4:47 PM. Jay texted back: "Thanks man, enjoy the space."
They put up the drywall two weeks later. Painted. Got the LG 75-inch TV mounted. Keisha's standing desk went in on the office side, full setup — two monitors, a label printer, a dedicated router. It was exactly what they'd planned.
The basement was finished by mid-July. The kids were obsessed with it. Movie nights every Friday.
It felt like a win.
August: The Power Bar
It started small.
The power bar in the media room — a Belkin 12-outlet surge protector they'd picked up at the Best Buy on Steeles — started tripping. Not constantly. Just occasionally. The TV would go dark, the soundbar would cut out.
Deshawn figured it was the surge protector. Bought a new one, a Tripp Lite this time, heavier duty. Same thing happened two weeks later.
He reset it. It held. He forgot about it.
"Looking back, that was the sign. We just didn't know what we were looking at."
August 29th, 2024
It was a Thursday. Around 10:45 PM.
Deshawn came downstairs to grab his phone charger from the media room. Keisha was already asleep. The house smelled normal — except when he got to the bottom of the stairs.
There was a smell. Not smoke exactly. More like hot plastic. Like when you leave something too close to a baseboard heater.
He stopped in the doorway. Looked around. Didn't see anything.
Then he noticed the outlet behind the entertainment center — the one the TV and soundbar were plugged into. He pulled the cabinet away from the wall. It took some muscle; the thing is solid wood, weighs maybe 200 pounds.
The outlet was brown. Not dirty brown — discolored. The plastic was warped slightly around the top right socket. He touched the faceplate.
It was hot.
The Call
He called 911 at 10:58 PM.
Two trucks from Brampton Fire Station 201 on Sandalwood were there within eleven minutes. They brought in a thermal imaging camera — the kind that reads heat through walls.
Deshawn stood in the hallway watching the firefighter scan the wall behind where the entertainment center had been.
The camera lit up orange and red in a six-inch stretch of wall, maybe two feet above the outlet. Not at the surface. Inside the wall.
The wiring behind the drywall was overheating.
They opened the wall. What they found: Jay had run 14-gauge wire — the kind rated for 15-amp circuits — on a circuit with a 20-amp breaker. The wire had been carrying more current than it could handle for two months.
The insulation on two sections of wire was beginning to melt.
The fire chief — Captain Armand Tremblay, based on the card he left — looked at Deshawn and said:
"Another week and this wall would have been on fire."
Deshawn said he nodded. He didn't trust himself to speak.
The Part That Stops Him
Here's where Deshawn goes quiet.
His son Elijah is six. He'd been going through a phase — a lot of kids do it — where he wanted to sleep in the "cool room." The basement. He'd drag his pillow and his Bluey blanket down there and make a little bed against the wall.
The wall.
The same wall.
He'd done it that Monday, two nights before. Deshawn had carried him upstairs around midnight when he woke up to use the bathroom.
He hadn't done it Thursday night — by chance. He'd fallen asleep in his own bed before asking.
Every time Deshawn gets to this part of the story, he stops. Not dramatically. He just goes somewhere else for a second.
"I can't think about what would have happened if he'd been down there that night."
That's all he'll say about it.
What the ESA Found
The Electrical Safety Authority came out for a full inspection on September 4th.
The report was four pages. Here's what was wrong:
No permit had been pulled for the work. Ever.
14-gauge wire used on three of the 20-amp circuits — wire gauge wrong across almost half the job.
Junction boxes not properly secured in two locations behind the drywall.
One circuit with aluminum-to-copper wire splicing using only twist connectors — no proper AL/CU rated connectors. That one is a known fire hazard going back decades.
"Four violations in a basement that looked finished and clean. You'd never know from the surface."
Confronting Jay
Deshawn called Jay. Didn't text — called.
Jay picked up. Deshawn explained what happened. The fire department. The thermal imaging. The ESA report. The four violations.
Jay's response: "I've been doing electrical for ten years. I know what I'm doing."
Deshawn asked if he was registered with the ESA.
Silence. Then: "I'm not going to get into this with you."
He's never picked up again. His Facebook page still exists. Still says "Electrician" in the bio.
The ESA has no record of him. Not as a contractor, not as an apprentice. Nothing. He was never registered. Never will be.
The Bill
A licensed ESA-certified electrician — a company out of Mississauga called Voltage Masters — came in and did the full rewire.
$8,500 to pull the proper permit, rip out Jay's work on the affected circuits, and run new 12-gauge wire throughout.
$2,200 for the drywall repair, patching, and repainting.
Total damage: $10,700.
On top of the $3,200 already paid to Jay.
Thirteen thousand, nine hundred dollars. For a job that was supposed to cost thirty-two hundred.
The Voltage Masters crew pulled a permit. Had an ESA inspector sign off. Took five days, not three. Keisha said the inspector was thorough — spent almost an hour in the basement.
"That's what a real inspection looks like," she told me. "We didn't know that's what we were supposed to be getting the first time."
How to Protect Yourself
Deshawn and Keisha weren't naive. They asked around. They got a quote. They checked the Facebook reviews.
They just didn't know what questions to actually ask.
Here's what you need to know before hiring anyone for electrical work:
1. Verify ESA registration before you say yes.
In Ontario, anyone doing electrical work for pay must be registered with the Electrical Safety Authority. It takes 30 seconds to check at esasafe.com. If they're not on the list, stop the conversation.
2. A permit is not optional — it's protection.
A licensed electrician will pull a permit and an ESA inspector will sign off on the work. If your contractor says "we don't need a permit for this," that's your sign to walk away. Permits exist to catch exactly what happened to Deshawn.
3. Price is not the metric you think it is.
A quote that's 30-40% below market isn't a deal — it's a question. Where are they cutting corners to get there? Sometimes the answer is wire gauge.
4. "I've been doing this for years" means nothing without credentials.
Experience and certification are different things. Jay may have been wiring basements for a decade. He was doing it wrong for a decade. Check the license, not the biography.
5. Facebook reviews are not a background check.
People leave good reviews when the lights turn on and the price was fair. They can't see inside the walls. Neither could Deshawn.
6. Ask who's inspecting the work.
A licensed contractor will welcome an ESA inspection — it protects them too. If your electrician hesitates or says the work doesn't need inspection, trust that hesitation.
GetAHomePro only lists ESA-registered electricians in Ontario — every contractor has been vetted before they appear on the platform. Find a verified electrician near you →
Questions Readers Asked After This Story
How do I check if an electrician is ESA registered in Ontario?
Go to esasafe.com and search by name or company. The registry is public and free. If they're not listed, they cannot legally perform electrical work for hire in Ontario.
Is the homeowner liable if unlicensed work causes a fire?
Potentially, yes. If unpermitted electrical work causes a fire and your insurance company investigates, you may find your claim denied or significantly reduced. That's a separate nightmare on top of the one Deshawn already lived through.
Could Jay be charged or sued?
Performing electrical work for hire without ESA registration is illegal under the Ontario Electricity Act and can result in fines. Whether Deshawn pursues civil action is his decision. Last I heard, he was talking to a lawyer.
What if the previous owners of our home had unlicensed work done?
This is more common than people realize. When buying a home, you can request ESA inspection records through your municipality. Not foolproof — but it gives you a starting point.
Elijah still sleeps in the basement sometimes. Deshawn let him, eventually — after Voltage Masters finished and the ESA signed off. But he checks the outlets every time. Runs his hand along the wall. Just to be sure.