Wow....Needed to Replace GFCI for Charger

Yikes! I have been charging my beloved Prime everyday since I purchased it about 2 1/2 weeks ago. I set up a home charging station using the EVSE that came with the car and plug and unplug it every time I charge . (When I travel, I just look for a charging station in that area. There's no station at work and my office building won't allow me to use its electricity that's on every post in the garage. Said something about the cost and then some really silly reason that if the cord is frayed, it could cause a fire. No worries.) Anyway, I've been plugging and unplugging the cord in the wall receptacle each time I charged the car. The receptacle was a bit loose, so I tightened it down a bit...but, it was still loose every time I unplugged the charger from the wall receptacle so it would rock slightly. Yesterday, when I tried to plug-in the car after a quick trip, the light on the Prime's charging port wouldn't turn green. So I went to the receptacle and the buttons would not reset. So, I removed the outlet and found what's shown in the photos. I guess somehow I caused the two line wires to arc. I can't think of anything else that would cause the damage. I've now replaced the GFCI and am just leaving the EVSE plugged in to the wall. (There's a refrigerator and rechargeable vacuum on the same 15A circuit plugged into different receptacles on the same line, but that shouldn't have caused the wires to fry.) Sometime soon I am having a 240V, dedicated circuit installed and will self-install a ChargePoint Home 12 16 A station. For the time being, I've changed my smoke detector batteries. Any suggestions on why the GFCI fried is appreciated.

 

The box in the wall is plastic. The breaker was not tripped before I went to change the receptacle. Since I wasn't certain which breaker was affected, I turned off all the power to the house first. Now I'm worried I might have overtightened the wires in the new receptacle. I wanted to make certain the wires wouldn't pull out of the box since it was difficult to put it back into the box...they were short since I had to cut off some of the burnt stuff.

 

A fire waiting to happen...that give's me great comfort. The refrigerator indicates its 6.5 Amps. I just checked and found that the car draws about 12 Amps. To my lay-person mind, I guess I am overloading the circuit and need to remove the refrigerator while I wait for the dedicated outlet to be installed. Am I right to presume that when both the car is charging and the refrigerator is running I am overloading that circuit. (Why wouldn't have the circuit breaker tripped first...did it have something to do with the fried wires.)

For reference,the receptacle the EVSE is plugged into presently is a GFCI that controls 3 other outlets in the garage. So I imagine that the total amps used on that line is the sum of everything plugged into the 3 outlets. Sound right?

Any electricians here?

 

Oh great, my house is a fire hazard and people on here giving me advice have Alzheimer disease. Man, I love you guys

 

You all have given me a great idea for when I retire, which might be soon for my new business. For a fee, I will drive a purchased Prime from the dealer to the purchaser so those in the middle states can enjoy the plentiful Prime bounty in the coastal states. The other division will be where we set up a chair in your garage or in front of your house (with a fire extinguisher) and watch your Prime charge for 5 hours.

(Disclaimer: I need the fire extinguisher for user error overloading circuits or faulty wiring, I no way meant to imply the car has issues; all is well. The car is perfect. No problems. Very safe. JEEEEEZ, I hope no Toyota lawyers read this forum.)

 

But seriously....thanks for all the comments. I had an electrician stop by and he said the wires that were fried are the neutral wires, which was most likely caused by overheating. Apparently, I had way too much "stuff" on the line with car charging, refrigerator, rechargeable vacuum and garage lights. He is installing the right receptacle for me so down-the-road I can install a ChargePoint unit. He is also adding a new dedicated 20 Amp circuit and receptacle for the Prime so I can use that for now and he is rewiring the damaged GFI. All is well. Thanks to all for your information and thoughts.