D.C. Motor

I have put the new kitchen cabinets as an island. I want to install two outlets on the side of the last cabinet. The other end of the island is the wall from which the 20 amps wires are coming through basement. Total length of cabinet is 6'. Question: 1. Can I run wires under the cabinet from the wall to other end of the cabinet? 2. The wires that are coming from the basement are touching the heating duct located in the basement ceiling. is that ok? I have seen other wires in the house too close to the heating duct.

Hi! This is my first post but a serious one. My wife and I were sleeping downstairs near the fireplace last night when we heard a crackling kind of noise, like one of our cats was scratching something. When we looked we saw flames coming out of an outlet near the window! The lamp was plugged in to the socket but had been turned off. We put out the flames and saw a wet spot under the outlet where apparently one of our cats had sprayed on the outlet. ( possibly creating a short?) When we went down to the basement to check the circuit box, the curcuit had been tripped and now the basement and that side of the house is out too. The house is very old and some of the wiring is too. Where do we begin? What could have caused this? (it's never happened before) We've had no trouble with outlets or wiring before. Do we have a big fire hazard? Does this sound like we will have to rewire the whole house? Thanks for your help!