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[deephologramtimemachine]

So...as current passes through wire the wire heats up. For a given amount of current, a thinner wire will get hotter than a thicker wire. Sometimes the wire gets so hot that it starts a fire. This is bad! In response to electrical fires most countries have building regulations that say how thick the wires inside your walls need to be, so that the circuit breaker will cut off the power at a lower power level than it would take to start a fire inside your walls. Great! The problem with power strips and extension cords (in the US, at least) is that it's legal to make and sell these things with thinner wires than what's required for inside the walls. It's therefore possible for the stuff plugged into the power strip to draw so much power that it will catch fire before the circuit breaker stops the power. Whether this is a problem in your area will depend on local regulations. Maybe your government recognizes electrical fires outside of walls can be just as bad as the ones inside walls, so they've banned power strips with substandard wire widths. Maybe they're more like the US and still allow these to be sold. You'll have to look into the rules in your area to know for sure. And of course, wherever you live it is possible to purchase a power strip with extra-thick wires where spontaneous combustion won't be a concern. This does take extra effort on the part of the consumer though.