Bird nests over outside flood lights and fires

[CathyA]

I just heard on the news that locally 2 houses have burned recently from the flood lights catching a dried bird nest on fire!
So be careful with those. If there are birds living in them, then put a tape over the switch to remind you not to turn them on. If they aren't occupied, then remove them.

[danna]

For sure...a few years back the light on the side of the house we didn't usually use (except to open the inside door for freshair). Well warm fall day and dgrandson were visiting, the inside door was open
and the light somehow got turned on...grandsons visiting. I smelled a burning smell and by the time I figuered out it was soming from outside the light had fallen off the wall and there was a small fire on the wooden
deck. It did not cause much damage because I was quick to put it out (except of course the little bird family).
First the light was on and secondly the light was a type that a very small bird could and did fly up from under in a not too large an opening.
I couldn't imagine it happened often but, when I told people a lot had heard of it. One case similiar to ours were it fell on a freshly stained deck with on one home caused a very large fire.

[Mrs-M]

Home safety is so important. I tend to think few homeowners do regular walkabout checks of their homes. i.e. Broken/cracked windows, fire hazards, etc.

[CathyA]

Especially in the Fall, I can hear mice in the walls. DH puts traps in the crawl space and we get them occasionally, but I do worry about them chewing the electrical wiring and burning our house down. I hate killing the little guys, but I don't want to lose our house either!

I was having trouble with the lights on my golf cart. When I took it to the golfcart fixer guy, he showed me how there was a mouse nest up inside the front of the golf cart and he showed me the wires that they had chewed all the insulation off of. They probably do that inside the house too. Its scary!