On May 30th, I had taken my daughter to school and I was out looking at properties in the cove. I was driving up the street approaching my house. I saw a fire truck (F-250 size paramedic truck) across the street from my house. I thought "Gee, I hope the neighbors are ok..". I live on a corner lot and could not see around the corner yet. As I got closer I saw firemen running across my yard with a hose leading into my back yard! Apparently while I was gone, the barbecue (Charmglow barbecue from Home Depot) had caught fire while I was gone!
The neighbors heard the hissing of the propane tank and had called 911 and were spraying hoses from their yard. It had blown out one of the eight-foot slider windows, a steeple window, burned some of the stucco, a couple of the faux beams above the door, the carpet inside, the back of our couch and melted half the blinds. Much of the stucco "damage" was the fire department tearing into the walls to make sure there were no embers or smoldering insulation behind the stucco.
After the fire department left I went to turn on the AC unit and found out the fire had melted the fins, rendering it inoperable. The insurance company is going after Charmglow for damages. I decided to do some snooping after this and found out on consumer affairs website hat it had numerous complaints about Charmglow.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/homeowners/charmglow.html
Any way, the AC was replaced within the week. The rest will be fixed fairly soon. The dogs were the only ones home. They were hiding in the office and the bedroom and had not run out (Even with the door wide open from the firemen fanning the smoke out). The fire investigator assumed there must have been a leak and when the AC fan kicked on, the spark ignited the flame. I was quite positive I had closed the valve at the tank during the last use. Maybe the valve didn't close properly. I cannot hazard a guess since everything had burnt or melted in the general area.
My friend picked on my wife and said her birthday candles must have started it. (Her birthday was the 29th). This got me in trouble because I laughed out loud when she said that. 
Nothing major, just a little excitement in my otherwise boring life. I simply thank God no one was hurt and that the dogs are safe.
Here are the pictures.
Let me say this is not an attack against the manufacturer of the barbecue, but a good lesson for people to be careful with their equipment and make sure everything is in safe and working order.
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