Blog Post #2 Electrical Fires

This article was pretty brief.  It gave basics of what to do in the event of an electrical fire.  It made a point of telling the readers to find an immediate place to land, to do whatever you can to locate the source of the fire.  I don't know if I would be able to do this if it actually happened to me. I know that the most important thing is to first fly the plane and find an appropriate place to land but in all honesty, I would probably be pretty focused on trying to put out the fire first.  (I should work on that).  I know it's probably common sense to not try to reset a circuit breaker if you suspect that it could cause a fire but I'd never really thought about it specifically before. 
Currents take the path of least resistance.  If there is any damage to the wire the current will continue to flow through whatever the nearest conductor is. The current can eventually exceed its rating and causing a fire.
The procedure for our Seminole checklist is pretty much the same as what the article suggests.  Our procedure is obviously more specific to our aircraft.  Basically you want to turn off anything electric because that is where the fire is coming from. There was a tip in the article: "If there’s smoke in the cockpit, you may need to open a door, window, or vent to let in fresh air. Or not." Our checklist tells us specifically not to open vents.
Hopefully I will never have to experience an electrical fire but there's probably a good chance that I will. I feel fairly confident at this point in my training that I would be able to follow the checklist and land safely without completely freaking out. I remember talking with an instructor about the different smells of an engine fire and electrical fire. I think it's hard to explain but hopefully I would be able to recognize one over the other as it was happening so I could do the correct procedure (I'm kind of bummed the article didn't go into that).