...to think that my house might be on fire?

[Goatsandcoats]

Oh the panic.... Am I overreacting rather than am I being unreasonable?
I'm staying with family 200 miles away & have just been looking for my portable phone charger.... Which I've just remembered I left charging.. On top of my metal washing basket on top of actual material.
Oh I'm such an idiot.
I'm away for another 48 hrs
Left this morning
The only person with a key is my dog walker (I only moved in a week ago)
I've just texted him to see if he's around tomorrow & if he can pop in!!!! No reply so far & I'm now googling images of people's charred belongings & houses where chargers have overheated. Bugger.
Am I being O.T.T?

It'll be FINE. I get called to fires with my job. I'm not a fire officer . If your home is on fire you WILL be tracked down and informed. Trust me . Relax.

temporarily disconnect the electric

I actually laughed out loud at that one!

They have fuses and stuff to deal with this kind of thing nowadays.

If it makes you feel better I once got FIL to travel a few miles to check that I hadn't left my straighteners on when we were away. Apparently they weren't even plugged in.

Carcer I'm like you, I always get paranoid I've left them on and return to the house, but I never have

Ah what a lovely dog walker you have.

I once left the iron on and flew to Germany. Last minute ironing, put clothes on, totally forgot to unplug the iron. I was away 4 days. I have to say the moment it dawned on me was pretty horrific but all ended well - except I had to buy a new sodding Rowenta. Im sure you'll be ok OP - and merry Christmas

Does the dog walker get up early?

Another worrier here. An iron and hair straighteners that turn themselves off after a certain amount of time honestly changed my life! I’m sure all will be fine!

Was out with DD and DS on THursday when DD remembered that she had put some smiley faces in the oven at 11am!! It was now 6.45pm and she refused to go home first as the house would be burned down. It wasn't - oven was hot, smiley faces burned to a crisp but house didn't even smell of burnt food!

DD is 17 btw

It will turn itself off. Honestly. Even the cheap ones do this. If you bought it from an actual shop in the UK then it will be very safe, same if you bought direct from amazon or a UK retailer online. You have slightly more cause for alarm if you bought from a dodgy Chinese third party seller on amazon/ebay, but even then, it's not like it's guaranteed to burst into flame especially if you've never noticed it getting particularly hot before now.

Thank you SO much for all your replies! Was able to have a good night's sleep....
Haven't heard back from dog walker yet (obviously!)
Just want to know so I can relax!
So annoyed with myself 😞

My Mum put an egg on to boil (gas cooker) and then went on holiday to France! She realised while on the ferry. This was pre mobile phones, so she had to wait till they arrived then find a payphone to ring a neighbour. Apparently when the neighbour got there the pan was on the floor, and there was blue powder lying around - the remains of the egg, mixed with the pan lining. And the gas was still on. It could have been so much worse!! I hope you get your charger sorted OP.

How did it go op ?!

If it makes you feel better we go out and leave the wood burning stove going.

Wouldn't worry too much. Dp leave his plugged in and switched on by the bed aaaall the time, literally! It drives me potty but it's been fine so far and since I'm sharing a room with ds (health reasons) just now I'm hardly ever in that room so it's probably on for days before I think to go and check and switch it off.

Once I left a phone charger plugged in at work overnight. Got to my desk in the morning and wondered what the fizzing noise was.

Turned out someone had knocked the end into a a cup which had a little bit of water in

No fire. But I was amazed it didn’t catch fire.