Oh MAN!! My Furnace could have caught on FIRE!

Wow that is scary... Its such a scary feeling when you realise how close you were to losing everything.. I have had a close call once I was cooking pasta and rice for my dog and I had to rush out to pick up my husband from work so I turned everything off drained and cooled my pasta then put it back on the stove top with a tea towel over the pasta in the saucepan checked everything wasn't hot and left. We came home about 15 minutes later to find half of the tea towel ON FIRE!!! it must have just caught fire as we were walking in the door.. I ran in, grab the saucepan handle and threw it in the sink.. IT WAS SOOOO SCARY !!! if we had been any later the entire house would have gone up in smoke and it would have been all my fault.. :( .. I didnt turn the stove completly off that's why it happened and the corner on the tea towel was resting on a tiny bit of the hot plate.. I learnt my lesson after that one..

I have one closer than that. My great-great grandmother, who I lived with most of my childhood, had an antique gas stove which at the time she still used. I was getting my hair straightened one evening, by my grandmother, which meant I had to sit in the kitchen with my back to the stove, which she used one of the eyes to heat up the hot comb. the stove was good, but you had to light up the oven part if you wanted to use it. Well, my little brother, who was about 4 at the time, wanted to use the stove too. While my grandmother wasn't paying attention, he pushed a chair up to the stove, turned on all the eyes, and the oven as well. My grandmother continued to straighten my hair, and I watched tv. All of a sudden the stove went crazy! It exploded, thankfully contained within the oven, five times, making a loud boom as the oven door came open and slammed shut. I bolted out of the kitchen, through the pantry, falling to my knees, and into the dining room. My grandmother, cool head that she had, quickly turned off all the eyes and the oven. My poor brother was still petrified atop the chair in front of the stove. Luckily the gas hadn't filled the room before it exploded, or the whole house could have blown up!

Whew! Close call there. Thankfully for the odd noises we hear when things like this occur. I've never had anything close like this with an appliance of any sort thankfully. HAPPY POSTINGS FROM GRANDPA BOB !!~

Hi copperkitten, YIKES! That mus have been scary, and indeed was a close call. I haven't really had anything like a house almost catching on fire happen to me, I have been pretty lucky! Have a good weekend! Luv & Hugzz, PurpleTeddyBear.

Mine was sending two foot flames out of it last year.I had to get the fire dept over in the middle of night and they had to shut it off till the Utility people got there.

An apartment I had moved into once has a similar problem. My brother came over and checked it out for me. There was not one, not tow, or three, but FOUR filters shoved into the furnace. I guess that was the last tenants way of telling the landlord to kiss their @ss. I am glad you got it taken care of before something bad happened.

Wow, that was close. Glad it was an easy fix. We had an old exhaust fan here when we were renting. It never worked and one night I woke up and smelled burning wood. I went to the kitchen and looked out the window, the exhaust fan was right above the window. I could see a little smoke outside, but not sure where it was coming from. I opened the basement door and my basement was full of smoke. The exhaust fan had shorted out and the insulation and rafters were just sitting there smoldering. We had to have the fire department back 3 times and the 3rd time, they finally gutted the kitchen ceiling. It was still smoldering 8 ft. away from the fan. They are guessing it had been smoldering for about 2 weeks. The smoke went down the wall and in the basement and we had a drop ceiling and it stayed on top of it. In fact, the drop ceiling was smoldering on the other side. It is scary when you think what might have happened. Glad everything is good on your end.

Wow, that sounds scarey. I'm glad everything worked out for you okay! I have had a close call- just this summer. Our air conditioner line backed up and overflowed the pan that is supposed to catch the water. One morning I was sitting at my computer and my 4 year old comes in to tell me there is water leaking through the ceiling. Sure enough, she was right. I knew it was the air conditioner, so I wasn't overly concerned- just frustrated that we had to get these repairs done now. The stupid home warranty company said they couldn't get someone out until 4 days later, and that was after waiting for 4 hours for them to call me back! In the meantime my ceiling started to bow a little bit. Then the water started dripping through all the fixtures on the ceiling and through the smoke detector that was up there. When the smoke detector started making all sorts of strange noises I got really freaked out. I called my husband (I don't know why I thought he was going to be able to do anything from work), and he called the fire department to ask if this is a serious hazard of a fire starting or if I could wait in the house for the repair person (I wound up calling someone else other than the home warranty company so we could get the repairs done that day). A few minutes after my husband called the fire department I heard a fire truck, and four firefighters came to my door, climbed up in the attic and told me there was water everywhere. Oh, it was crazy! It cost $1,500 to have the attic and ceiling dried out, but fortunately we caught the water problem before the ceiling lost any structural integrety. Not nearly as bad or scary as your furnace, but it was a close call I would not like to experience again!