Repair of outlet after a burn

An outlet burned up and needs to be replaced. Fortunately it only burned the outlet and not any further. My question concerns some of the results of the burn. 1) the breaker did not flip off, why? 2) the insulation around the wire burned (the building was built around 1940) can I rewrapped the wire and just install the outlet? or is cutting and splicing wire better? or do I call an electrician to replace the entire wire? 3) Are the causes of such a burn fault of the outlet, wire or appliance which was plugged in?

 

Not seeing the outlet it would only be an assumption that it burnt do to a loose connection, with a load on it. If the wires never touched each other at they’re bare spots then the breaker was only see this as a load (not much different than a heater.) This is were an Arc Fault would have possibly worked. As far as the wires, when the arcing started, (In laymen’s terms) break down of the copper was started, defecting the cable at the burnt end. You need to repair the cable (not wrap with tape). You need not replace the whole cable, but see that there is enough wire not burnt in the box to wirenut new ends on then to reach the new respt. If not then they need to be pulled back into the attic, and a proper junction box installed at the joints. Also if the old Recpt. Was backstabbed (wires not wrapped around screws) (plugged into wholes) do not use this same method. Could be why this happened to begin with.