So I am fast asleep or atleast I am trying and I start getting this funny feeling in my stomach. Then I hear a sudden chirping that starts getting louder, I jump out of bed my entire house is engulfed in white smoke and my alarms are screaming as loud as me. My boys are in bed and not listening to my demands. I am checking out the fire place. It is smoking and I cant see why. Then I notice a candle I didnt light spilling wax all over the mantle that is then dripping on to the fireplace insert.

Crazy night but I learned somethings
1. We are vastly ill prepared for emergency evactuation.
2. My boys are some deep sleepers.
3. I dont want any candles in the house

So we are spending this weekend to practice fire escape drills.

What'd it do...spontaneously combust? :P

Seriously, glad all turned out well.

No my teenage son light it. Sorry I guess I forgot to say that. It was one of those big (size of a human head candles) and the wick was way done in the candle I didn't see the light or realize it was light but the side of the candle gave way and all the melted wax went everywhere. Long night had to have all doors and windows open to subfreezing temps on to air it out.

Glad you are all okay. My husband has lit candles downstairs and once in a blue moon I have found it lit. I just see this glowing in the middle of the night. It is scary. Once again glad everyone is safe.

This is also a good time to reming everyone that this weekend is the time to change the batteries in the smoke alarms.

So my son was crying last night, not because he almost burnt the house down or killed us but because dad will be home soon. So I took pity on him and told him that his father almost burnt down his mothers home once. My husband decided to skip school and hide under the house in the crawl space it was cold so he built a fire(makes sense) he didn't burn it down though. I told my husband and he had a good chuckle. Anyway my son had the pleasure of racking leave after school for his punishment. Moral to the story kids and fire do not mix. Feel free to post your close calls.

This should make you laugh.

When I was about 13 or 14 I almost burnt down our house. I had tossed some pop tarts in the toaster for an after school snack and while they were toasting I went and checked the mail and turned on the TV. I got interested in what was on TV and forgot about the tarts until I smelled something burning.


When I got back to the kitchen there were flames shooting out of the toasters , they singed the cabinet and managed to catch the paper towel on fire as well.

When the toaster had completed its cycle the pop tarts fell over and jammed the toaster allowing it to remain on.

To this day if I place anything in the toaster I do not get more than 3 feet from it until I am done using it.

I'm thankful you're all safe over there! The worse we've had in our home was one of the kids trying to reheat some Captain D's hushpuppies in the microwave....the flamed up in there. Over last summer there was a fire on the property next to where we're at here...really scary cause we live on a trucklot here and all the diesel and whatnot around here.

For those of you who smoke or entertain smokers - I have a scary story.

We had a family barbeque this summer and several of my guests were smoking. My husband left out in the truck after we ate and I drove my father home. It started sprinking rain on my way home. When I came back I thought I smelled smoke - but it was dark and I looked around briefly and didn't see anything so I thought that a neighbor had been burning. (We live out in the country.) I went to bed. In the night, my dog had to go out and again I smelled smoke. Looked around again and still didn't see anything.

The next morning - a neighbor called and asked if I would drive her daughter to school. I told her I would and when she dropped her off - I could still smell the smoke but didn't see anything. It was pouring down rain when it came time for her to go to school so we just bolted to the car. When I got back and pulled in my driveway - I was stunned to see that all the pine needles in the beds around the side of my house were gone - completely burned away. 2 of my shrubs were just charred remains. Upon closer inspection, I had a smoldering hole in my porch where once had sat a large resin flower pot.

One of my guests had put out a cigarette in the pot and it burned slowly all night. Once the pot was gone, it burned through my porch and the embers caught my pine needles on fire.

I thank God everyday for the rain that apparently put out the pine needles and for my neighbor asking me to take her child to school.

Since this was on the side of my house which I can only see when coming into my driveway and the covered porch was still smoldering, I probably would have gone to work and my house would have burned down.

I talked to local firemen and they all told me I was extremely lucky. Since then I have heard of 2 other instances of this happening. Potting soil is peat moss, wood chips, and dirt mixed together and is very flammable.

I have since replaced all the pots around my home with terra cotta and ceramic and I have plenty of proper ashtrays for entertaining.

Thanks for telling the stories. I'll remember them for the future. The closest I have ever come is the stove setting off the fire alarm either due to the heat or me burning the hamburgers. I have never found out a way yet to cook hamburgers in a skillet without creating a lot of smoke. I started cooking them in the microwave.