I went to a couple's house to rewire the ceiling fan in the bedroom. They were selling the place and the new owners had a home inspection done.
The inspector found the wire to the ceiling fan had a burnt place in it in the attic. The fan had been wired with 12-2 romex, but the light and fan were on seprate swithces. Whoever wired it used the ground as a hot wire, one of the staples in the attic had pierced the insulation in the wire and shorted to the neutral.
The rafter had a black charred place behind where the wire was. I pulled in a new 12-3 to the fan and told the homeowners just how lucky they really were that the house hadn't burned down.
