Whose fault is it... Mine or his.

[kristo]

Hi There,

 

I have a situation and need some advice.

 

My housemate regularly charges his phone in the kitchen. I started boiling some water and could smell burning. I looked and saw that his cell phone cable was alight.

 

The cable was wrapped around metal part that supports any pots/ pans that are put on the stove.

 

Now who is negligent/ at fault here... Any feedback is welcome.

 

On another point, he has lost 2 of his phone chargers. In fact, the charger that got damaged he was borrowing from his brother. A couple of months ago, I lent him a charger and my friend also lent him a charger around the same time. When I asked him for my charger back, I found out that he left it at his friends house, as well as my other friends place. He is generally clumsy & negligent.

 

This may seem like a small issue, but I have been nice (too nice) and been taken advantage of, which is not going to happen anymore. However, If I'm wrong, I would be the first to put my hand up and say sorry, unlike my friend & his brother.

 

Thanks for listening.

 

K

[tinydancer81]

Its his, this isn't the first time he's been negligent with chargers and he shouldv'e plugged it in somewhere safe. Doesn't take a genius to work that one out

[SapphireNoir10]

Yeah definatley his fault, thats dangerous.

[ghost69]

just sounds like he absent minded with things. he's a walking fire hazard.

[alli]

If he put it there in such a way to cause it to be wrapped around the metal parts, it's his fault. If the charger was alreay there & you moved stuff around, causing the charger to be in a position to start on fire, it's yours.

 

If the latter occurred & it was your fault, then you still don't owe him anything since he lost your charger (unless he found it & gave it back to you, then you might owe him a charger)

[CallingAllAngels]

He shouldn't be charging his phone so near a stove........

[ghost69]

He shouldn't be charging his phone so near a stove........

 

yep. should be on the stove. what was he thinkin?

[CallingAllAngels]

yep. should be on the stove. what was he thinkin?

 

wise ass....lol

[DN]

Interesting question,

 

Dumb place to charge a phone so his is the major primary fault and I think that means he should pay for the replacement.

 

But if he regularly does this and you are aware of it then you should have checked to make sure the stovetop was safe. In fact, it is a good habit to make sure a stovetop is safe any time you use it and that something flammable isn't causing a danger. So there is some negligence on your part as well - but not enough to offer to pay for the charger, even in part.

[ghost69]

i don't think it was the stove that caused it. i thought it was just where she noticed it. right OP?

 

sounds to me like the charger was grounding out on the metal supports for the pots.

[DN]

i don't think it was the stove that caused it. i thought it was just where she noticed it. right OP?

 

sounds to me like the charger was grounding out on the metal supports for the pots.

I thought she had turned the stove on:

I started boiling some water and could smell burning

[ghost69]

I thought she had turned the stove on

 

hmmm, well, if it started when she turned it on, then yeah, you should use caution when cooking. but i was under the impression that she just happened to notice it when she happened to be cooking....like if she didn't have such a coincidence the charger could have burned the house down. i think we need further info. this can go either way.

[DN]

I do agree that the main issue is that he should not be putting his charger near the stove anyway.

[alli]

I think the metal heating when he started boiling the water was the cause of the charger lighting up, at least that's what I got from it. The OP is a guy btw.

[CallingAllAngels]

I do agree that the main issue is that he should not be putting his charger near the stove anyway.

 

Exactly..........

[ghost69]

being a roommate and all, his charger should be in his room.

[kristo]

Hi guy's,

 

Thanks you all for the quick responses.

 

Just to clear things up

 

1) The stove uses natural gas and the supporting piece on the stove is black.

 

2) The cable, which was covered in plastic was hooked around the the supporting part and is also black.

 

3) I could smell the burning plastic and could also see yellow flames licking up underneath the pot, instead of the blue ones from the stove. Trying to move it proved to be difficult, due to be being hooked up.

 

4) I knew the phone was the there, as I saw the screen light up. I was going to tell my house-mate that he had a call/ sms, but it had just finished charging. That's how I knew I didn't touch it.

 

I'm normally very aware and I'm trying to think about how I could have avoided it.

 

I was going to give him my spare charger (out of guilt/ to keep the piece), as it was his brothers (there's another story there), but I didn't want to do it out of misplaced guilt or be 'too nice'.

 

Thanks for the advice (as per usual)

 

Kristo

[DN]

I don't think you owe him a charger because you did anything wrong.

 

But do you need two?

[ghost69]

this story can pretty much go in my 'Who Does That?' thread. what was he thinking?

[kristo]

I don't have a spare charger..."meaning that I have another charger at work,when my battery runs out"

 

He has been borrowing chargers from my room-mates since Oct-08, since his one stopped working.

 

The charger that got damaged is his brothers.

 

Go figure.

 

Cheers,

 

K

[DN]

Ok - then off to the cell phone charger store he goes.