This didn't happen to me, but to a friend of mine, whose house burned down. This happened while he was at work so he wasn't hurt in any way, and he was also able to salvage his most expensive stuff, along with all of his important documents.
For the past week, I have been helping him with whatever he needed, which included temporarily storing some of the salvaged stuff at my place, and let him borrow my washing machine and dryer.
According to the fire investigators, they believe it was most likely a basket of batteries he collected that maybe shorted and caught fire. As for the damage, pictures are worth a thousand words.
February 6th, 2025 at 07:58 pm 1738871916
February 6th, 2025 at 08:03 pm 1738872208
In the meantime, my friend is staying at a hotel (then some kind of airBnB) that his insurance will also pay for. Even though he got out OK, it's still throwing his life out of the loop into the foreseeable months ahead.
February 6th, 2025 at 11:33 pm 1738884832
February 9th, 2025 at 02:42 am 1739068920
February 9th, 2025 at 06:16 pm 1739124962
I have two mason jars of batteries to be recycled; I just put them outside the house to take to Staples to recycle next weekend (they recently added free recycling for single-use batteries).
February 9th, 2025 at 07:31 pm 1739129478
I have read that allowing batteries to touch each other while they' being stored reduces their battery life. I guess that' why they usually come packaged in those hard plastic things with divided compartments.
Also, while this could have been battery-related, I came across a product that can help prevent electrical fires, which I plan to get. It works with an app on your phone so it could alert you if you were away.
What a nice friend you are.