I read an article once where the thrust of the story was, a lot of American homes were wired up with electrical wiring that was aluminium.
The metal is prone to corrosion at the best of times, but with the 110V standard, American wiring carries a higher amperage for a given wattage, thus increasing the heat load on the wiring.
The article spoke of numerous house fires in America that were caused by corroded aluminium wiring at connections, aided by the larger variation in the heating and cooling cycles of the wiring, as compared to the higher voltage countries.
CarsonDunlop.com - Home inspector training - the true story behind aluminum wiring in the U.S.