[EricH]

Originally Posted by Chriszuma

Well with the kind of electricity we're dealing with, it wouldn't be sparks that could be a fire hazard, but shorted out electronics. More than once a motor has belched flames in a competition, in that case you'd better pray you used fire-retardant plywood.

Haven't seen that, but I remember two instances where it almost happened. First one--1999 at SVR. One of the robots started smoking (white, luckily--or not) during a match. Second one--Last year at LA. A rookie team had a robot that dumped tetras under the goals. Something happened, I'm not sure what. The robot got stuck in a goal and began spitting a shower of sparks about a foot high every time it tried to move.