Wii Burns down Home

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Demon_Skeith

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A Colorado man who lives in his RV says his Wii burned it and everything he owns. That's a picture of it, above, after the blaze.

Insurance adjusters will use an X-ray to examine the console to determine if it was actually the source of the fire, but the victim, Trevor Pellegrin, says fire investigators told him they're "99 perent sure" the console was the cause. A fire department spokesperson told KKTV-TV of Colorado Springs that "all other possible sources of ignition have been ruled out."

How it happened seems frighteningly spontaneous. Pellegrin told KKTV that he'd been using the Wii to watch Netflix and then he turned it off, leaving the vehicle to go to a meeting. He returned to discover his camper was on fire. It appears something sparked or overheated, igniting fabric on a nearby cushion, causing the blaze.
That's it. The console was evidently powered down, but left plugged in, just like zillions of others in use around the nation.

"I was coming back from a meeting and a I got a phone call from my neighbor that my camper was on fire. ... I was crying, I was screaming, I was still trying to get my things out of there," Pellegrin told KKTV.

While the failure may have been aggravated by circumstances specific to Pellegrin's home, consoles of the current generation draw even more power in their resting states than the Wii, allowing them to download updates in the background and respond to voice commands to power on. Conservation advocates have criticized consoles' increased power usage.
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that really sucks.
 
I wonder if the Wii was at all edited with something not made by Nintendo. Seems a bit strange for this to happen otherwise, they have been on the market for a while and its the first I have heard of this problem. 
 
That's strange... A wii should never get hot enough to catch fire in the first place due to its fans - and if you have it positioned as instructed, that should be even less likely!

Either this person didn't read the basic instructions, or he's one of THOSE guys that likes to modify his consoles (no shame there, no shame there - but it's just not safe). I mean, a similar thing happened amongst a few Android users that used Chinese knock-off chargers and ended up either burning themselves, household items, or they caught fire entirely.
 
I hope this man is alright. Although I do agree with others that there's a chance that this man may not have been taking care of his Wii. Did this man have his Wii positioned so that nothing was blocking the fans in the inside of the console? Was he using a faulty outlet or power strip?
 
It really sucks that this has happened, but there's a reason why there are so many instructions when receiving your consoles. Not only that precaution, but also realizing that there are other dangers, such as faulty outlets and power strips. Almost anything could happen to these babies and cause the same problem in our homes as well. Make sure to test your power and make sure everything is positioned correctly. 
 
anadrotowski said:
It really sucks that this has happened, but there's a reason why there are so many instructions when receiving your consoles. Not only that precaution, but also realizing that there are other dangers, such as faulty outlets and power strips. Almost anything could happen to these babies and cause the same problem in our homes as well. Make sure to test your power and make sure everything is positioned correctly. 
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I get the feeling that this is the main cause of the fire, electronic devices overheat, it's important that they're unplugged when not in use.  My phone even has a tendency to reach quite hot temperatures, i'd hate to see it if it were plugged in for an extensive period of time.
 
Gee, that's terrible! Makes me a bit scared as I sleep with electronics (mainly my laptop) a lot. It doesn't really overheat much though, and I do use a fan with it...
 
The article says a fabric caught fire. I have no idea why it could've retained heat, and enough for anything to catch fire, but I also don't have my consoles anywhere near fabric! Just doesn't seem safe!
Sounds more like an unlikely event that happens anyway, though, like a so-called "Act of God" in legal speech...

EDIT: By the way, I'm a freak who reads the terms and conditions for nearly everything and just anything in general I sign or "agree" to, and I distinctly remember many consoles (if not all) that I've owned do not cover "Act of God" occurrances. So tough luck to this man, who knows if he has insure and it covers this event! :notright: :(
 
Ok, while that sucks, who is to say that the Wii is at fault alone?

There could very well be a contributing factor to that.
 
 
I'm usually one that says "people sue for anything". But in THIS CASE, I say sue to your heart's content. The fireman's investigation already stated the Wii is to blame.

I'm sorry, but I would go after nintendo like white on rice.
 
 
That's upsetting because that could very well be ANY of us. Just think about the Playstation and Xbox systems, both of which are more powerful than the Wii.

Those could very well spark a fire even faster.
 
 
I pray that this guy didn't try to do ANY modifications of any sort. Because he actually has a lawsuit here if the report is true about his Wii being powered down.

But if he tampered with it in ANY way, even if it's negligible, they will say the fire was caused by something he did.
 
 
This is a very cautionary tale for every one of us gamers. I always wondered if we should simply just unplug EVERYTHING sometimes. Stories like this make me feel my idea is right.
 
 
So here are some of the thoughts that came to my mind about this situation:
1. He lived in an RV. I'm no electrician but from my experience, those are usually not equipped to handle the type of electricity that flows through a normal home all of the time. When it is "hooked-up" it's supposed to be for just a few things. RV's aren't really meant to be "lived in" all of the time, supposed to be recreational. Recreational vehicle. For short-term usage, vacationing, etc. Quite possible ANY electronic device could have caught fire easily in there. 
2. Fabric cushion near the console? BAD IDEA! Duh. I won't even let my consoles sit on carpet. They have to be on hard floor or a shelve.
3. It really sucks for this guy but these things do happen every day and we should all be safe and smart about our electronics.
 
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