42 Times A House Burned Down Because Of Stupid People, Stupid Decisions And Stupid Coincidences

This happened this past fall, but a family had a “fairy house” that was outside, right next to their wood sides house. The fairy house was made out of an old tree, and had a bunch of decorations in it, including incense candles. One evening, they decided that they would light the candles for the fairy’s, which then caught the tree on fire, which then extended into the house. Since it started on the outside, it ran up the side of the house and got into the attic and second floor. The family was home, but in the first floor while this was happening, it wasn’t until someone driving on the road saw the smoke and went to alert the family. Luckily, we were able to save the structure, there was a bit of damage to the roof, attic and second floor, but the homeowners are rebuilding those areas.

Not a firefighter but happened in my building. In india generally you have small praying place in your house, like a little version of a temple. You lit Diya (lamp) everyday and pray there. In this particular case the family Decided to keep this thing on a fukin refrigerator. The diya fell behind the fridge due to wind from the window adjacent to it . the condenser caught fire and literally exploded. The whole floor was on fire. Luckily no one was home. It really was a dumb decision to keep a temple on a fukin Fridge.

So, here in Argentina we have el cordero a la cruz, AKA cooking a whole lamb with open fire, well, it just so happens that pines are really flamable, and, if you make an unprotected fire in a floor covered in pine leaves near a blooming pine...

Someone tried to make a gummy bear lamp like in iCarly to test it really gonna burn.. and then ... His house was on fire.

I’m not a firefighter but after a month of my sister living in her first apartment, we had a huge snowstorm and she bought some everlast (is that what they’re called?) fire logs to save on heat. She put one in the fireplace and tried to light it but I guess it never really caught fire and just smoldered for a while. Disappointed, she shut the flue, closed the glass doors, and went to bed. She woke up in the middle of the night to her apartment filled with thick smoke. In a panic, she took the smoldering log from the fireplace and tossed it on her snowy wooden balcony. In the morning, the log had burned through her balcony and the one below it. If you looked through the hole, you could see it on the patio two floors below her.

In the city of Colorad Springs, the local news did a fluff piece about candle safety near Christmas. After they were done filming , the store owner that they were filming in took the crew out to breakfast. She didn't put out the candles, and burned several shops to the ground. The film crew was there to film her breakdown when they realised what caused the fire.

My uncle is a firefighter, the answer is Christmas trees. They dry out, they become a ticking time bomb. He used to do an annual demonstration where he'd let a Christmas tree dry out for a few months then take it outside and ignite it. The flames would shoot 40ft in the air and the tree would be gone in a few seconds. It was mightily impressive to behold... and I'm sticking with artificial trees.

Not a firefighter, however I was an insurance agent for ten years and I have two to share:

Client was an elderly, mental handicapped woman. She burned her apartment building down. Apparently she was a bit of a hoarder and she filled the top shelf of her bedroom closet with old newspapers. At some point she put one of her wigs on top of the newspaper pile, right underneath the bulb. Or more accurately touching the bulb. Add that to the fact she never turn her closet light off, and there you go. Whole building gone, no one hurt though.

Second one was a gentleman who was making a huge batch of chili. He had it simmering on the stove, went out to mow the lawn. Somehow it boiled over and started a fire in between the walls in the kitchen. Burned half the house down, again no one was hurt.

I'm driving by a house and see smoke coming out from under soffit. I see a guy thawing pipes, with his feet sticking out of crawl space. I tell him, his house is on fire and I'm a firefighter. I also tell him to get out and call FD, (before cell phones) I'll go to firehouse and get truck. I get in firetruck, and call in fire to HQ. He never called it in, and was still under house thawing pipes when we responded to fire. Upper wall and attic was in flames.

I perform restoration on fire damaged homes. I saw a fire where the fire investigator concluded it started because a bird picked up a lit cigarette and dropped it in a gutter full of dry leaves.

Not a firefighter, but our next door neighbors built a brand new house and moved in. The last item to finish was stain the deck. After the painters were done with the first day, they took all the stained rags, stuffed them into a plastic bag and left them next to the house. Sometime after midnight the rags self-combusted, caught fire and burnt the house down.

College dorm kids reheating a pizza on the oven...still inside the cardboard box.

I have been a firefighter for 20 years. The dumbest way I've seen a house fire start was when people squatting in a basement decided that a space heater would be handy in drying their clothes. Then they waited15 minutes before calling for us, trying to put out with a garden hose (into the basement on a 5-degree night). They burned down their home and the one next door.

Most of the fires I've seen have been starte by the usual stupid. unattended candles, smoking in bed, smoking on d***s and passing out, unattended kitchens, etc.


The weirded one I've been to was a porch fire caused by sunlight refracting through a glass hummingbird feeder.


The ones we can never get to on time are kitchen grease fires doused with water. Those people are lucky to get out of the house at all.

I was a volunteer fire fighter for 15 years, these are all calls I personally responded on.

- There was a power outage. This lady legitimately lit 400 candles, widely distributing them about the house. She placed about 40 of them along the floorboards near the kitchen cabinets. The particle board based countertops caught. We kept it to room and contents. The husband arrived home during overhaul, and it was difficult to keep a straight face while she screamed at him for not buying her marble countertops. We had just put out the candles at the base of the bed, too. I'm not sure how the countertops caught and the sheets didn't.

- Teenagers running around a field shooting bottle rockets at each other. No one got hit, but one went in the barn, and there goes the hay.

- Guy received a recall notice for his Buick with the supercharged 3.8. You know, the well known recall of them spontaneously combusting in your garage? He knew he took good care of his car. I'm sure he did. I'm also sure he should have obeyed the instructions to park that car outside.

- Do not light cigarettes while reloading ammunition. I will not go close to your house until the ammo is done cooking off. It will be in the basement before the ammo stops. My deck gun will keep your neighbors somewhat safe, but your place is done.

- This wasn't really a structure fire, but it did involve fire: just because HF sells a coupling to allow you to move propane between tanks, doesn't mean you should use it. Definitely don't use it in your basement, or refill like 20 tanks in a row with the windows closed. Eventually, it'll go boom. It won't last long, but you won't have windows anymore, and that helicopter ride is expensive.

I hope people see this.


My neighbor had a big barn with a huge mouse problem. So he built this machine that a mouse goes on top of a wired platform and gets zapped to death. He was so proud of this machine he had to show the entire neighborhood. Fast forward three weeks, his entire barn burns down to the ground. The cause? Mouse got zapped, lit on fire, runs into a whole bunch of bailed hay.

Firefighter here. One extremely cold night the temperature was -11 wind chills -40’s , this guy tries starting a fire in his fireplace and couldn’t get it started. He decides to use gasoline, dumps 1/2 gallon on the firewood stacked by the door and the other 1/2 onto the wood in the fireplace. As he attempted to light the fire he couldn’t get the lighter to work. Now the vapors are really starting to build, he then goes to the kitchen which adjoins the room with the fireplace to use the stove to light some newspaper. As soon as he turned the k**b on the stove the igniter lit the gasoline vapors. The living room was instantly on fire. The vapors singed all his hair and got first degree burns on his hands and face. We on the other hand spent the next few hours in the extreme cold. Flash ahead 3 hours, the firewood outside has somehow ignited and we have to go back. The second fire had sometime to really grow, middle or the night, everyone in bed no one around. Longest coldest night of my life, all because some fool decided to use gasoline to start a fire indoors.

Not a firefighter but the apt building I stayed in had a pretty good fire. Guy threw a lit cigarette in a coffee can full of butts. It was on the far end of the building from us, so my upstairs neighbor and I got to stay. Everyone else had to move. We were dealing with water leaks for almost a year after that. It took them that long to sort out insurance stuff and make repairs. Finally put on a new roof a few weeks before we moved.

Not a firefighter, but I was living in a big old single family home that had been converted into six apartments. Because it was a house, it had a shingle roof. The owner hired one of those "unlicensed, uninsured" type outfits to work on the roof - the kind you find hanging out at Home Depot in the morning looking for jobs.


Anyways long story short the guy was on the roof, smoking, and somehow caught it on fire. Rather than dialing 911, he ran down three flights of fire escape, got the garden hose, and ran it back up. Once he got to the top, he realized he never turned it on, so he ran back down, turned it on, and ran back up. Apparently by that time it was out of control, so he headed off. One of the neighbors finally called 911 but by then it was a full on blaze, destroyed the top two floors and most of the first floor.


Moral of the story is, just call the professionals.

Haha great stories guys but nothing will top this. Kitchen fire lady out front screaming we go in see fire coming from weird areas in cabinets, like how is it in these cabinets? They aren’t near stove, electrical nothing. Put fire out nothing major station was close to house so we were quick. I’m the Lt. asking questions about fire from homeowner. She has no clue how it started. I prod further as to why these cabinets in a weird area where nothing is were burning. She says I put my oven mitt away in that cabinet in corner....it was on fire when I put it there could that be it? Yes you read that right. She caught her oven mitt on fire and put it away....still on fire. She didn’t see the problem.