We are really lucky but I am in a state of shock. Someone started to pound on our door and said that our house was on fire. Flames were licking the side of our house which is brick. Fortunately, my husband put it out and the damage doesn't seem too great. We don't know if our new air conditioners suffered damage, all the piping and wires burned. But that wasn't the cause of thre fire. The fire inspector is not too sure what started it. The fire department said the house was safe. All I could think of was my dog in the house had we not been home.

Now back to Vue 7 Infinite

OMG!!! Glad to hear you are safe and your house didn't suffer much damage!  I hope they find out what started it.  Thank god for good neighbors :) 

Glad to see you did not suffer too much damage.

These random fires are scary. They are always on my mind since our kitchen burned down a few years ago due to a freak shortcircuit inside of a wall outlet. We lost one cat that time - the other survived (he found that staying under the bed was not a good idea).

Oh Paula..that's terrible. Thankfully you were home at the time. I live in a wooden house and I always worry about my two dogs when I leave home. Glad you're all ok.

Yes, glad to hear you are safe.  Sharen

Thank goodness your family and and the dog are OK!!!  :scared: Scary to think about all the stuff you would miss after a fire.  Glad there is not much damage - although airconditioners are not cheap. 

Glad you're safe!  I think I'd be investigating a LOT until I found out the cause...

Thanks all of you for your support. It was really scary. The only thing the Fire Inspector thought was spontaneous combustion from a garbage can that held some leaves and twigs in it. He said that if they got wet and decomposed it could happen. he checked through all the ashes.

The electric company changed the meter and checked other aspects since it all happened outside. They couldn't come up with anything either.

WOW! Wet leaves & twigs decomposing could cause that - I had no idea. That is scary indeed :blink:

wow, Paula... glad you're ok & everything turned out well!

and yes, wet vegetative matter in a pile or enclosed space is bad bad news... this is why hay & stuff is dried before baling usually.  Ive seen even just the weeds in a field that accidently got bundled in with bales cause the combustion.

What happens is, as the stuff decomposes, it generates heat.  The heat has to go somewhere, and if it can't, it builds up - and builds up... until it ignites.  once it ignites, it takes no time for the flames to spread. 

this is why folks who compost, and are any good at it, remember to turn their compost every so often to let it "breathe".

wow... sorry this was a hard way to learn a little science fact =(

One of the bad things with a fire is that you lose everything including all that software you built up over the years! The one and only reason I recently purchased a Fire data safe, I put all my back up discs in there so even if my house burns and my pc melts, I can be up and running in no time after because hopefully my back ups will be ok in the safe!! [LOL].
Anyway, good to hear it didn't escalate into something a lot worse!

Paula!

Ack, that's horrible. Glad it didn't do too much damage. Hope it is all getting worked out. What a mess to have to deal with during the holiday season.

Take care.

Wow - glad you are all safe - shaken but not burned - take care

Yikes!! Glad it didn't get any worse :)

IMHO, such fire hazards are one reason why wooden housing, without very good reasons for it's use, should be banned :/
Long time ago, in Scotish borders, up in the hills we had a 100mph blizzard, that is, the average windspeed was between 70 and 100mph, gusts hit 120+ (storm was probably worsened by being funneled through the small narrow valleys and hills).
Our house was brick and you could feel and hear it moving/rattling.
A wooden house would have been torn apart.

Our previous house wouldn't have blinked at such weather, lol, 2' thick sandstone walls (which is typical of old houses in my region, our old house was built  around 1740 iirc).

Thefixer,
yeah I'd liek to get a decent fire safe but well, you know...buying Vue7, Poser stuff...lol ;)

Silverblade, check out your local B&Q store [I kid you not], selling a Sentry Fire Data safe for £99 and it's a decent size.
It's good for an hour up to 1000 degrees, I managed to fit my XHD, my House deeds and lots of holiday photo discs plus all my other back up discs too.
Normally retails about £250 so I don't know how they're doing it so cheap!

 Glad to see you were OK Paula. Thank goodness for your astute neighbor! 

Wow, glad you're okay!

OT JackieD I like your cat :-)

OMG! Very scary indeed.
Thanks for letting us know.
Great that you guyz are OK!