We had two significant house fires in my neck of the woods yesterday, both of which had the potential to start some brush fires that could have gotten out of control with our current Santa Ana weather conditions.

Whenever there's a house fire, I like to try to dig deeper into the story to find out more about how the fire started. Sometimes it's just a simple call to the fire department.

One of the house fires -- an $800,000 house with beautiful views -- apparently started in a closet where the owner says the electric panel was located. The house is a total loss.

While locating electric panels in closets at one time was fairly common, we now know that if there's a problem in the electric panel, there are all sorts of beautiful, costly, and flammable clothes ready and willing to go up in flames to help the house consume itself.

The best thing to do if you have an electric panel in a closet is to re-locate it somewhere other than a closet (or a bathroom -- moisture and electricity can be just as bad as clothes and electricity). I understand that re-locating an electric panel can be expensive, but I also understand that re-locating your life because your house burned down can also be expensive. Which do you prefer?

A short-term solution for electric panels in closets is to install a plastic cage around the electric panel to keep flammable clothes away from it. I think Home Depot sells them.

The second fire started in a storage shed and spread to a pile of objects in the yard. Unfortunately, too many of our storage sheds and garages look like this:

and many of our yards look like this:

If your property looks like those above, it's time to clean it up. They are not only fire hazards, but such conditions are conducive to various wildlife moving in -- snakes, rats, mice, skunks, opossums, raccoons, and birds -- which bring their own sets of health and safety problems.

The mid-day news is now reporting another house fire this morning that apparently started in a garage. Wanna lay odds on what the garage looked like?

With the outdoor Christmas light season rapidly approaching (and that's a blog all its own), don't let your house -- or that of your family, friends, or business associates -- turn into a holiday disaster.

Life is a journey, not an end. Enjoy the journey.