could be worse

My fridge blew up! Not with a bang, but a stinky smoking slow burn.

I smelled something plasticcy and hot,I thought the laptop was going to overheat and turned it off,but I could still smell it.

I sniffed my way around the house and pinpointed the laundry,not the dryer,the washing machine or the powerpoints. It seemed stronger around the fridge but I couldn't see anything.Called hubby and he got up and had a look at the top,took the box that was sitting on top off,and smoke billowed. It stank. I can still smell it a few hours later.

On the top of the fridge is an electronic box that overheated, by the look of the bubbling mess it was just about to burst into flame. So it could have been bad,very bad, we have a lot of "stuff" stored next to the fridge and our house is 100yr old wood.Doesn't bear thinking about what would have happened had it been at night while we were sleeping.

It's a huge behemoth of a fridge and we had to get it outside,with every heave and hoe, new wafts of smoke emerged.We finally got it outside where it stands sentinal in the middle of the yard.

it's 35 deg c today, what to do with all the food? I've got two esky's and we'll just have to keep buying ice until we can replace the fridge. Insurance informed me I have a $500 excess...What? it should be $300 (they won't leave me at 0 or 100 as I make claims). They are looking into it. Meanwhile I have to source a fridge and make a list of all the food we lost or will lose due to the heat. it's going to be 37 tomorrow and 40 on sat. The earliest we can get a fridge here is Wednesday...the joys of living in the country.

But it could have been worse we could be sitting in a smouldering pile.