Saturday night I was going to bed when I started smelling smoke. I asked my husband, "do you smell smoke?" He said no, but checked a few things to make me happy. I still smelled smoke when I went to bed, and had a real hard time sleeping.

When I woke the next morning, the very first thing I heard a voice say, "The refrigerator." I grumbled half awake "What, about it?" The voice said, "MOVE IT!" Well, that woke me up.

I told my husband that we need to move the refrigerator. He is used to me doing and saying weird things, and he knows better than not doing what I ask. Sure enough, when we moved the fridge there was a one foot burn mark on the linoleum, and the floor was very hot.

The back of the fridge was caked with dust, and so were all the vents. I mean, ten years of yuk. I am not the best housecleaner in the world, and I never knew you're supposed to vacuum the fridge!

I am hoping that cleaning the dust will solve the problem. I don't really want to buy a new fridge.

What a close call!! Thank goodness that you discovered it in time. Remember to thank whoever it was that warned you. I know I have to get under the fridge once in a while because of all the cat and dog hair that flies around our apt. I know that it's also a big issue with dryers. I'm so glad you found out what it was and was able to take care of it in time.

Oh my! That was a close one! Looks like you have someone looking out for you though =) To make you feel better I had no idea you had to vaccum the vents on the fridge, I dont' think about things that are out of sight lol

Must have been your guardian angel! You are very lucky. Now you know about the vents, you can go another 10 years!

Whoa! Thank God you found it in time. There was definitely someone looking out for you that day! I didn't know about the vent either...so that makes three of us now hehe. Although, I'll be checking mine today to make sure that it's not all clogged.

That was close. I will give you another bit of advice for people like me who do not have a vacuume. You can rent cylendars of carbon dioxide from soda places or places that sell beer taps. open the valve and blow all the stuff out of the vents. We do that every year on the first day of spring as the official start of spring cleaning.

Thanks, that is a really great idea!

It will probably work much better than my old vacuum.

So far so good, I have not smelled smoke.

I'm so glad everything is alright now, Mary! Good thing you had a little helper with that one.

Kell