Burning down the house (almost)

The other day, my son came to me and said his monitor wouldn't turn on when plugged into the surge protector and that the "building wiring fault" light was lit. I told him to try the surge protector in another outlet and circuit and he said that it was still lit on the same circuit, but not on other circuits. As I was working, I told him to wait until my father came over later and that they could…