How can I determine if there is any damage to the conductors of a circuit?
The quickest and safest may be to check the resistance of the conductors with the power off, and determine the resistance it should be based on the material, length, and cross sectional area. Testing in various locations.
Of course this requires some math, and guessing about the conductor length.

Another quick way is to test for voltages with the power turned on. You may also need to have some sort of dummy load to check for high resistance connections, this could be done with a solenoid type voltage tester.

The easiest is to go based on the assumption that the problem is at the connections. That means that it is likely in a electrical box. Make sure that none of the connections are loose or charred in every one of the boxes. You would have still needed to do this with the other tests, but they would have helped to narrow down the location of the problem.

Actually that still isn't the easiest; which is of course to call an electrician.



I will say that it is very unlikely that you blew open the conductor anywhere else. According to a chart on Wikipedia it would take about 600 amps to melt a 14 gauge wire in one second, which is more time that it would take for a fuse to blow. So unless the cable was severely damaged beforehand somewhere along it's length; the problem is in a box.