I have the standard smoke detectors as well as some additional ones tied into my home alarm.  If this had been my house, I would have been called by the alarm company well before I got home.  By the time they called me, the fire department would have been on their way.

Nope, true story.  No Fire Marshall or LEO involvement whatsoever.  No insurance loss = No investigation.

Only outside involvement was from the Local Electric Cooperative who came immediately and disconnected the power before we could even get home.

I did, Freshman year of HS.(1990) It gets really cold in E.WA sometimes, and our pipes in the attached Garage would freeze between the wall where they came in from the well, and the pressure tank, or from the pressure tank in to the house. To combat this, my parents draped visqueen around that corner of the garage (picture a paint booth) and had a small space heater in there to keep it all warm, as the heat tape wasn't cutting it one winter.
 Well, our cat had a litter of kittens a month or two prior,  and being curious little things they explored the garage & were having fun playing with the plastic. We suspect they pushed the plastic into the heater as that's where the fire started.

Total loss. everything burned, or was completely destroyed by heat & smoke. We stood in the snow & watched it burn as the fire dept struggled to get to our place.
Fortunately my GSD "Vader" woke us up in time to get out.

The thing I was most impressed by was our car in the garage was about 20" tall afterward.  That, & the blinds in my bedroom where the fire didn't reach (well, it was in the attack above my room, but hadn't broke through) were completely melted, the fire dept guys said it was probably near 700 degrees in there.  

From a career fireman... Unless It's a very little fire, walk outside, check the mail, talk to your neighbor, have a beer and then call the fire department. It's why you have insurance.

Let's say you have a fire in the kitchen. It will give off smoke and soot that will coat EVERYTHING!  Even if I make a quick knock on it and all it did was burn up your stove, and cabinets your house is covered in soot.

The restoration companies can clean a lot of stuff but most of it you can never get the smell out for years. Insurance companies won't pay out on salvageable stuff.

If it is my house... That fucker can go right into the basement, guns and all. I would be sad to lose my civil war swords that were my dads but all my guns are separately scheduled and it also includes my ammo if the can reasonably acct for it.

Until you Sprinkler that Grease fire.

Um you are suppose to think about how the fire started when you are arriving.
Size up?
360 ?
Types and tactics for suppression?

I did, not 100% proven what caused it burned down a 2 stall attached garage and made a good sized hole in the roof of the house, everything upstairs was destroyed either from smoke or heat or both, anything that was in the basement was OK if the water didn't wreck it.  

 
Be safe, don't play with matches, if you smoke make sure your smokes are out.  Fix problems with house ASAP, especially electrical etc, make sure you have a good firewall between garage and house (this saved alot of stuff for us).  

Yes. If you have a rider on the insurance for your guns and ammo.



 

I can remember almost every house fire claim I have come across... lots of electric space heaters
but my very first house fire was a lady in town that her dryer caught fire and burned the house down
total loss and that lady was absolutely devastated something I will never forget

I am crazy about the dryer now, it doesn't run unless we are home
that being said
off the top of my head
a stove
a power strip
and a fan have caused fires here on arfcom

scary stuff when we have no control over these things

We do a damn good job at getting the smell out of structures and contents after a fire.  I've never had a call back after either due to odor, actually.  There's solid proven methods for removing smoke odor from structures and contents.  The guys who aren't successful don't use them.

The insurance company will pay to have salvageable items restored, it's up to the restoration company(ies) to know what's salvageable and what's not going to release the odor and should be total lossed.  The absolute last thing we want to do is to put stinky stuff back into some place that smells brand new.