My parents recently had a fire in their home.
As near as all the investigators, insurance companies, forensics, and fire fighters, can figure out it was an electrical fault.
Apparently this can “just happen”.
It occurred during working hours, so no-one was home.
In the normal course of things the fire alarm would have beeped away and no-one would have noticed until the fire was completely out of control.
As it happened they’d been burgled a couple of times a few years ago and had a back-to-base security system installed, which included fire alarms.
Over the years since there have been a number of annoying of false alarms on the security side, but it really earned its keep here.
The fire alarm informed the base, the base immediately worked through their list of contact mobile numbers, and got my mother. She confirmed that no-one should be home. They asked if she’d like the fire brigade called, to which the answer was yes.
Before she could get from her office in Civic to the house in the Inner North the fire brigade had arrived and put the fire out (the next door neighbour had a key and was able to let them in, but they would have broken down the door if need be).
So there’s a lot of aggravation and a bit of heartache. But there’s still a house, and most of the things that were in it are OK.
Something to think about if you love your house and the things inside it.
(This message sadly not paid for by the security system industry)