These accidents, like so many, are caused by a combination of ignorance, arrogance, and hysteria.
Electric fences are pretty obvious. The jolt they give is also regulated to prevent actual harm. Maybe the surveyor will now respect those funny wires with insulators at every post. (Incidentally, the 'live' wire is usually neither the highest nor lowest on the fence).
For a number of reasons, "hot" refrigerators aren't that unusual. Almost always there's some handyman involved- and a missing ground.
Bath fans are cheap...very cheap...someone sure went through a lot of work to "save" a few pennies. Even with there being a fault in the motor, I would not be the least surprised were there additional practices that contributed to this fire. Small wire, sloppy conections, absent over-current protection, etc.
As in the story posted by Gene, "Attitude" seems to be at the root of these stories. My pics about the "hack job" are from a place where the guilty party had attitude to spare.
