“She caught her oven mitt on fire and put it away... while it was still on fire. She didn’t see the problem.”

I work as a Writer at BuzzFeed, creating and curating quizzes, listicles, and articles that cover everything from pop culture chaos to food trends I immediately want to try and fashion moments I can’t stop talking about.

Responses have been taken from threads 1 and 2.

Disclaimer: This post contains mention of injury.

"The insurance adjuster shows up. The assistant chief explains what started the fire. The adjuster replies, "Oh, yeah, we know. It's OK. We insure for stupid!""

"By the time we got there, it was a total loss. He actually thought it was kind of funny. The only real loss was his wife’s purse, with her license and credit cards. The car was insured, and they got a pretty nice payout for it."

"The vapors singed all his hair and gave him first-degree burns on his hands and face. We, on the other hand, spent the next few hours in the extreme cold. 

Fast-forward three hours: the firewood outside had somehow ignited, and we had to go back. The second fire had had some time to really grow. It was the middle of the night, everyone was in bed, and no one was around. Longest, coldest night of my life, all because some fool decided to use gasoline to start a fire indoors."

"Last I heard, they were still living in a hotel and trying to figure out their next plan of action. This story alone reaffirms my belief that some things are better left to the professionals. Even if you’re trying to cut costs, it might be best to pay a little extra to have someone with experience do something for you instead. It can help avoid terrible situations like this."

"All of this took less than 30 seconds, and I remember being somewhat mesmerized by the path the flames traveled. I also remembered that I had flushed the toilet before realizing what had happened. 

I somehow thought to grab the toilet bowl brush, shove it into the commode to get it wet, and then beat out the flames. The aftermath was surprisingly minimal. The small section of carpet was destroyed (though my parents replaced the carpet everywhere a few years later), the wallpaper wiped clean with some hot water and a rag, and thankfully, there was only a little permanent smoke damage on the ceiling, which seems to have faded over time."

"My neighbors forgot they had ferrets inside. We grabbed our dog, but they didn’t grab their ferrets. The fire department came, but my neighbors probably could have put out the fire if they had unplugged the toaster and put baking soda on it."

"I was lucky I was home and caught it when I did because if his bed had caught fire, the whole house could have gone up. Thankfully, there was no real damage.

The fire department still showed up with sirens blaring, along with a cop, to whom I stupidly admitted that my roommate had been smoking pot. (“What happened here?” Me: “My roommate was smoking and threw the ashes in a paper garbage bag.” Him: “Smoking cigarettes?” Me: silence. Him: “Pot?” Me: silent head nod.) He just threw his hands in the air in disgust at the stupidity and left. 

The worst part was that I was living in a house that had been in my family for decades. A family member of mine was listening to the fire scanner for fun, heard our address on the radio, and called the rest of my family to tell them there was a fire. I got a whole bunch of panicked phone calls. Oh, and my live-in girlfriend’s parents were visiting the house that morning, too. They weren’t super excited about it."

"Them: “Yeah, we are. Open the door and let us in.” Him: “The door’s open. Come on in.” What they saw was one of the dumbest things ever. There was a kid lying on the sofa, watching TV and waving at them while a pan on the gas stove was burning. They put out the fire and asked the kid what he was doing with the pan. He said he was making Chinese food he’d seen on TV. He said the people on TV would “fire” the dish, and that made it delicious."

"She says, “I put my oven mitt away in that cabinet in the corner... It was on fire when I put it there. Could that be it?” Yes. You read that right. She caught her oven mitt on fire and put it away... while it was still on fire. She didn’t see the problem."

Text has been edited for length and clarity.