This happened a little while ago, but I was while putting my son to bed my fire detector went off. (I am so glad I replaced them all when we bought our new house, they all were not working).

I ran into my computer room with my son following me, I put my arm out to try to keep him behind me and I see this.

While it is hard to see, the computer case I had has an external drive bay built into the top of it, and the drive attached lit on fire. The wiring for the case was too thin for extended use and eventually melted and shorted out.

The case actually melted to the drive, and it was difficult to get it removed.

I was having problems with the drive and tried 3 drives in the bay, it fried two of them, the last lit on fire.

I knew something was going on as it couldn't read any of my drives but left it alone while I read to my son before bed. When the fire alarm went off we both jumped up and searched the house. It wasn't hard to find due to the awful smell.

If I went to sleep the situation would have been far worse. If you haven't checked your fire detectors in a while, do that today. You should check them every 6-12 months. They can save your life!