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In my eighty something year old house we get mice. I put out sticky traps and one got stuck. It dragged itself and the sticky trap along until it got stuck on the extension cord. As you can see it chewed away at the cord exposing the bare wires. Fortunately, nothing happened and I was able to replace the cord.
THE point is it could have been worse.
GET A SMOKE ALARM
HAVE A FIRE EXTINGUISHER (chemical not water), IN THE ROOM AND ONE JUST OUTSIDE THE DOOR.
The better smoke alarms can be programmed to announce the location of the fire. "FIRE upstairs bedroom!"
Nobody wants to call 911 or burn their house down.
Some related suggestions for indoor growers:
1) Keep in mind the usual small dry powder extinguishers and other small ones are weak. They blast out their stuff in a very short time, seconds, not enough time or stuff to put out all but rather small fires, not enough time or stuff if you haven't aimed right, etc. So have more than 1 extinguisher accessible, at least 1 per floor or house area (or at least have a large sized one).
2) Besides powder extinguishers, have on hand good-sized CO2 extinguishers (and have them expertly filled). Ideally have these stored ready right next to your dry powder ones. For most fires, the CO2 would be the first extinguisher I'd go for. It will almost certainly do the job (if you know how to use it), likely has more fire-fighting capacity, and will not destroy your possessions. The powder ones work by the powder sticking to/coating whatever it touches, while CO2 just disappears.
3) Have a good, easy and quick-to-put-on N-95 or other good filtering mask accessible with the fire extinguishers.
I had a fire in my basement (several old road flares stored in a box got damp in a minor basement flood and weeks later spontaneously combusted). Without a good-fitting mask immediately accessible (this was at the height of Covid), I couldn't have gone down into the smoky basement to fight the fire (I tried going down without one but couldn't breath) - the house would have been totaled. And if I had only 1 extinguisher, that would not have been enough. And this was just for a slow smoldering fire of boxes of misc. stuff in a 3 x 8 ft. area. I was able fully put it out without calling the fire dept. (and likely getting busted for growing upstairs).
Keep in mind, our plastic film tents are surely highly flammable. Fire extinguishers are very good investments, if not simply essential to have. If just used once, they could save your house, your own, family and pets lives, and keep you from getting busted. In this context, it's foolish (or worse) not to have suitable fire extinguishers around.
...almost the same as a cuppa coffee...a Year....absolute no brainer.....
