I think it’s very foolish to leave stuff like that on, over night or when you’re not at home.
I know you are supposed to be able to leave a crockpot all day when you’re at work or whatever, but I would never do that.
They DO get warm on the outside, and I suppose a malfunction is always possible. Besides I have cats and who knows what mayhem they could cause.
I used my crockpot on the weekends only.
I don’t get the no smoke detectors either.
The hot plate for this purpose (or a crock pot that could serve) would need to put out a very low heat so as not to burn the food for 24 hours. So this was a malfunction, which could happen to anything even an electric clock. The fire began while everybody was home. Had there been working smoke alarms, there would have been time for everyone to evacuate, if not also to extinguish the fire.