Fire, by a wide margin.
Actually, flooding is a much bigger concern for me. The mess and costs are huge and fighting with the insurance company is a pain.
Glad I don’t live in a floodplain, but it sucks that I seem to bust a pipe every other winter.
Fire for sure, although I don’t actively worry about it.
Anything I have that a burglar would be looking to steal; electronics, maybe a watch or two, guns, booze, etc. could be replaced down to the model number as soon as the insurance check came in.
With a fire, I would be out sentimental crap of course, but also practical stuff like documents and books that couldn’t be replaced with a trip to Best Buy.
I’ve lived thru a “small” fire before, I was home when it happened and emptied my extinguishers and then applied the garden hose and had it under control before the hook and ladder folks actually showed up. The amount of damage done was still staggering, so fire is way higher on my list than a break-in.
Definitely fire. Like many others, my 4 dogs and 4 cats are in the house while I’m gone. My house was built in 1840, and the floors, walls and ceilings are all dry, dry wood. I’m insured - the stuff doesn’t matter (although do you know how hard it is to find a comfortable couch??) but if my pets died I’d be devastated and guilt-ridden. As far as burglery, if they get past 325 lbs worht of dog, they can have the stuff. I don’t lock my doors, and I"m doing good to close them when the weather is hot.
StG
I don’t worry about either when I’m not home, but I sometimes worry about both when I am home. If someone’s gonna break in, or if there’s going to be a fire, I’d much rather it happen when I’m not there (I don’t have any critters to worry about). Between burglary and fire, though, I definitely worry about fire more – especially because I live in a townhouse, and share walls with two neighbors. When I was little my family’s apartment building caught fire in the middle of the night (we lost everything but the contents of one closet, including our cat), and it was because a neighbor fell asleep while smoking in bed. It’s been 31 years, but I still sometimes worry about a fire like that. Not often, though, and I’m not paranoid about it or anything.
Theft–of my laptop computer, specifically. I often take it with me when I leave my apartment just so it’s not sitting here alone if someone comes into my apartment. (“Often” may be a bit of a stretch).
And then I stick it in the trunk of my car and worry that someone will break into my car to steal it.
At a recent job interview where I ended up leaving my car in a valet-parking type parking lot, letting the attendents see that there was a laptop computer bag in the trunk was one of the things which bothered me.
(The bigger issues revolved around the fact that the only times I’ve let someone other than a family member drive my car have been when I take it in for an oil change, or other work. So I wasn’t expecting to hand over the keys and step away from the vehicle. Plus, I had the wrong shoes on, and did not have the jacket portion of my suit on. So I’m trying to hustle, and not worry about the attendents, and not worry about the interview, or my appearance. . . )
Before I got the laptop computer, I never really worried about burglery or fire.
Gosh. I just worry about having left out food that will turn into something horribly, horribly wrong by the time I get back.
But then, I rent.
You can buy fire safes cheap enough to protect the documents.
I’ve worried about both, living in an area frequented by crackheads, but fire most often.
It’s usually a did I turn off the stove/blow out the candles moment, made worse by the fact that I have cats. Though my neighbors are awesome, if they noticed smoke they’d probably break down the door to rescue the cats and put out the fire with one of the 5 extinguishers we have in the building (one in each apartment and one in the hallway).
If someone did try to burglarize my house, more power to 'em. Yes, take the television that lacks a remote and whose channel and volume buttons arbitrarily change both, and never in the direction you indicated. Better yet, take the other one, too, whose picture will randomly cut out from time to time. Other than that, and a pretty nice coffee maker, they’re SOL unless they’re into cool old furniture. Or books. Got a lot of books.
I don’t really worry about either.
Fire I guess would be worse, because of our pets.
When I was robbed a few years ago, I was surprised how little it bothered me. It helped that they had obviously been in and out quick, didn’t go upstairs or go rummaging for more stuff to steal. Now we have a big dog again so I worry about it even less.
I worry about the wind. The wind does not care. (Insert flute solo)
I live with a current military commander and a retired veteran. A cop lives on our block. I’m half a mile from San Diego’s major cop shop. This area was completely untouched during the big fire and there haven’t been any other serious natural disasters in this area for a while. Everybody in the house is almost obsessive-compulsive about checking the oven, etc.
so: Fire? No worries. Burglary? Eh. Earthquake? Not a big deal this far south. Global warming? What the hell, I’ve lived in Arizona, I can deal. Gays destroying marriage? I don’t care–I’m not even dating right now! I guess you could say I live a worry-free life.
I don’t really worry about either very much, but theft is more likely than fire.
Renting has nothing to do with it, IMO: you either worry about your stuff being stolen/destroyed or you don’t (I’ve been a renter for 13 years).
I live in a run-down apartment in the country. I don’t think anyone would bother to break in, especially since the adjoining house’s doors are always unlocked. Fire? Meh. I don’t think about it. I’m not too attached to my stuff.
I live in a forest. If it is cold or looks like rain, I close the door. If it is a nice warm summer day, I leave the door open (but keep the screen door shut) so Buddy the World’s Friendliest Cat can look out, get fresh air, and rub noses through the screen with his friends who come visit (a couple of neighbouring German Sheppards).
Fire is a concern for me – not a house fire, but forest fire that may burn down the house. In the dry hot summer, it is a very serious concern.
Other than my identity, I have little that’s useful to a thief. I really should get a good lock for my filing cabinet and/or burn all papers with our SSNs on it.
Other than that, the cats, the parakeets, and the ferret are my main worries, either fire or burglary related.
Someone pissed about the slim pickings at my house could open the bird and ferret cages and leave the front door standing open, which should be more devastating to us than losing stuff.
In the past 10 years, I’ve had a car stolen, from a relative to whom I lent it who parked it in a bad neighborhood–not from home, and various implements–shovels/rakes, etc. have disappeared from the yard, but crime is still low on my list of fears.
I grew up with a stepmother who obsessively checked and double-checked fire sources such as coffee pots and stove burners before leaving the house and have inherited most of that paranoia. If anything catches fire, it would be because some psycho burglar set the fire.
Do any of you who worry have monitored home alarm systems? I do, and I still worry. My critters are outdoors, so I don’t worry about them with fire or burglary, but I’ve seen the devastation of a house-fire up close and personal, you might say. It’s truly devastating to have nothing left but your car and the clothes you’re standing up in. Your wedding photo albums? Gone. Your great-grandma’s tchotchkes? Gone. Let’s start over from scratch with a whole new wardrobe, oh, yeah, gotta get toiletries, too, and shoes, and we have no more pots and pans and dishes. Sheets and towels? Need them too. Sure insurance will replace the non-sentimental stuff, but you are still figuring out things you’ve lost months and even years later. Whatever happened to that old _______? Oh, yeah, lost it in the house-fire.
And even if the house isn’t completely destroyed, most of what’s left will be ruined by smoke and water damage.
Burglary is devastating in a completely different way. My friend’s house was burglarized and it was a long time before she managed to get over the feeling of violation from knowing someone was in her house, uninvited, and pawing through all of her things. Personal things, too, like her toiletries (they stole her nice perfumes.) And the worst of it was that the police think her teen-aged daughter coming home scared the thieves off.
I know that having a monitored alarm system won’t prevent all the bad stuff from happening, but it does ease my worries somewhat.
I used towhen I lived in a city. It chased crooks away once who had broken in through a closed and locked second floor window, but they were gone by the time the cops arrived.