Nearly just burnt the house down

[firestarter2023]

Just did the dumbest thing ever. Left some incense unattended and burnt the food waste bin. House stinks and there's black stuff everywhere.

I'm lucky the whole house didn't burn down.
Aibu to say I'm the stupidest person ever 😭

It’s ok. You didn’t! Don’t think about what could’ve been

I went out the other month leaving a candle burning.

I nearly had a heart attack when in remembered.

We all do things that are forgetful - that's why they're called accidents.

Absolutely agree they are life savers - we have one in every room due to me having an illness where I am likely to (and have done) collapse and possibly leave something on the hob.

Most fire brigades give them for free and with a free safety assessment of the house.

Shit happens, I wouldn’t beat yourself up about it.

Smoke alarms - bear in mind as well that they need replacing every ten years.

I once grilled some fish fingers and had a shower at the same time - bathroom was downstairs and next to kitchen. DH had left grease on the grill and it caught fire. I got out of the shower to find flames coming out of the grill. I managed to wet a towel and fan them so I could turn it off without burning my hand. I was so scared 😱
Glad it turned out ok

Why are you beating yourself up? I once set a windowsill on fire. It happens. I didn't do it again.

Are you worried what your OH will say?

One December afternoon I propped the advent calendars up behind the gas hob whilst tidying up. That created quite the fire.... a surprisingly large one. And a puddle of red-hot advent chocolate. The work surface is still scarred. And it created a couple of heavily disillusioned-about-Christmas kids to boot!

We've all done stupid things, just be thankfully you got to it in time.

Yes interesting how the energy in the chocolate went up in flames , great science experiment .👍🏻

My Dad left a chip pan on.
The house didn't go up, but the kitchen cupboards melted off the walls.
It's sobering

My mum decided to light a candle on the windowsill, directly underneath her wooden blinds 🙄 it was only my dad who spotted it in time 🤦🏻‍♀️

How did an incense stick unattended do this? How did it cook an egg in a bin? incense sticks get put out easily

I lit it and left it in a stupid place. It lit the food waste caddy on fire. The caddy contained an egg which seemed boiled when I was cleaning it all. The caddy was on the window sill in the kitchen.

I don't bloody know why it didn't just got off. It was a full fledged fire. I put out the caddy then realised it had spread to the sink and there was a plastic lid that also caught fire. It was so unexpected I almost passed out. I'm just glad I caught it when I did. There's black stuff everywhere 😭

They drop little bits of ash. One hot enough on something dry can start a fire really easily.

Was it the ash that caused the fire, or the smouldering incense stick itself? Was it on top of the caddy? Id like to know exactly how it caught fire so I can avoid doing the same. I sometimes burn incense sticks.

@EightyfirstCat I don't know which bit made the fire start. I came back to the caddy almost completely melted and have seen no sign of the incense stick!

I stupidly wedged it near the caddy. I can't believe I was so stupid. I doubt you'll be so silly

I did something similar once. I don't allow candles/incense in the house any more.

I put a pan of water on the gas hob and then realised it wasn’t boiling at the same time that I became aware of a burning smell. I’d left my lovely solid beech chopping board on the oven and turned the wrong hob on. Bloody idiot. The chopping board now has a lovely big black burn mark on the bottom of it. Still can’t believe I did it.

It was fowl 🤭🤭🤭

Will insurance pay for a new window?

When I was a kid,my grandad always put boxes of matches in a jamjar-with the lid on tightly
I thought it was a bit overkill,but each to their own
Years later,I bought a box of matches and shoved them in my bag-forgot all about them
I woke up a few days later to the most awful smell
I couldn't work out what it was until I found the matches
Somehow one had ignited and set the rest off-burning themselves out in the box
I'm so bloody lucky I didn't set the house alight
And If I do happen to have them in the house now,they are in a jamjar
With the lid on tightly...

What a shock OP, but no serious harm done this time and a big lesson to learn from for you. A mistake you won't make again.

I once had a near miss with a tea towel left on a hob that was still on. We've induction now but still NOTHING goes on the hob top.

If it makes you feel a little better my Ex's Dad was chief fire officer at a fire station and TWICE he set his own kitchen alight through carelessness. The one person you'd expect to know better. It can happen to anyone.

YABU to say you’re the stupidest person ever. My family has a history of accidental fire starting. Least bad was a chip pan incident that left my mum burning down her sister’s kitchen. Worst was my sister burning down part of a French hotel with an incense stick. Thankfully no-one was hurt in either.

Probably in the old days the formulation was much easier to ignite.

I have some lighters in the kitchen drawer, but I keep them in a metal box just in case.

Anything in the garage that is flammable (white spirit, cleaning solvent) is kept in an old metal ammo box.

Batteries you should be pretty careful of too.