The Cyranose™ electronic nose (e-nose) has been used for the first time to detect species out gassed from overheated electrical wire insulation. Out gassing occurs due to overheating as a result of the passage of high currents through the wire. This results in significant heat dissipation within the vicinity of high power electronic package boards. The Cyranose™ can be used to detect the gassed species prior to the occurrence of either fire or incipient fire detection. The Cyranose e-nose has detected the outgassing species within 5-20 seconds in our tests, which provides a significant advantage over other methods.