Wife and I had just retired for the night, when the smoke alarm went off. We got up and started to figure out if we needed to exit the house immediately. As I came to the smoke alarm in the hall, I smelled an aroma I, as an electronics technician, am very familiar with: burned insulation. Now we knew what we were looking for. We immediately began looking for smoke. We couldn't find any, though Wife noticed the smell was strongest near the wall heater in the living room. I checked the computer room, our room and Son's room, and determined there was no fire in there. The smell was strongest in the living room and the kitchen. I felt the walls and ceiling where there might be a fire in the walls, but did not feel any unusual heat.

We called the fire department and explained we smelled an electrical fire, but could find no other evidence of such. They dispatched an engine. While we were waiting for them to arrive, I went outside with a flashlight and looked to see if I could find any smoke. We had checked everywhere we could except the attic. There was no smoke coming from the attic vents, nor any from the various roof vents.

The firemen arrived, and they looked around everywhere we did, then climbed into the attic and checked there. They smelled no smoke in the attic. I remembered that Wife had noticed the smell was strongest near the living room heater and told the firemen. We took the grill off the heater and there was some burned and melted substance inside. At first I guessed there had been something inside the heater that caught fire and burned with enough heat to melt the brazing of the firebox, but on closer examination, we discovered that the substance in question was not metal, but plastic.

Wife was able to identify the burned and melted substance. It was Son's plastic comb!

Son will bear closer watching in future.

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