TW: house fire. Everyone is ok, my in-laws just had their fireplace on intentionally while they were away and a log rolled out and started a fire.

My in-laws lost their house yesterday to a house fire. They're completely fine and they don't really have anything valuable, just lots of sentimental things. The main floor is almost completely scorched and everything else is either water damaged or smoke damaged. Insurance coverage doesn't look good because the fire was started "under suspicious circumstances". It looks like a log rolled out of their fireplace which ignited the carpet. It's an open fireplace, and they removed the safety grate (it keeps logs from rolling out) and they were not home when this happened either. They put several logs on the fire before leaving the house. The fire happened about three-four hours after they left.

My husband and I have been telling them since they moved into that house that they cannot leave the open wood-burning fireplace burning when they aren't home. We told them that leaving a fireplace unattended is just asking for trouble. They have a furnace, but my mother-in-law insists that the fireplace gives off better heat and it's "moist heat". They've already had a log roll out of the fireplace twice before but nothing happened because it didn't roll past the hearth onto the carpet.

My in-laws are convinced insurance will come through but the fire is being looked at as "suspicious" due to the grate being removed and the fact that they weren't home when it happened. Essentially, it kind of looks like insurance fraud.

Has anyone had something similar happen or heard of something similar happen? Did insurance come through? For now they're living with my sister in law but they could easily be homeless in the new year if insurance doesn't cover this and my sister in law asks them to leave. Luckily my sister-in-law is very generous and will help them out a lot, but it's going to be a tough go.

On the bright side (and sus side according to some), the family albums are at my place because I digitized them and hadn't given them back yet. My family had COVID so that was put on hold and we figured we'd give them back at Christmas. Small blessings y'all.

Edit: My mother-in-law said, and I quote, "People have warmed their houses for centuries with fireplaces and those homes are still standing." My husband pointed out that the ones that burnt weren't standing so she has major survivor bias. My father-in-law said they always heated his childhood home this way and they never had a fire.

Oh, and they removed the safety grate because it was ugly and obstructed the view of the fire 🤦🏻‍♀️