Similar to whenever we have a power outage around here.
Some idiot always burns their house down because they wired up a generator without an electrician.
Then some other dumb a$$ wins a Darwin Award because they run their generator in their garage and kill themselves with Carbon Monoxide.
I worked as a professional firefighter for 25 years. In all that time I never went to even one house that was burned down because they “wired up a generator without an electrician”. And I certainly never went to a house where someone killed themself by running their generator in their garage. While it is likely that these types of incidents have occurred somewhere at some time... they are exceedingly rare.
We live in an area that has very frequent power outages. This year it even went out while we were having our annual Christmas Party while we had over a dozen people visiting. It takes me about two minutes to switch over from utility power to generator power. That outage happened when it was still light out. Some of our guests didn't even realize we had lost power.
Our generator has been used over a dozen times in the past 12 months. It runs on natural gas; on many occasions we have had our generators running 24 hours straight, for more than a week with only a check once a day to make sure that the oil level is where it should be and looking for any other possible issues.
The power was out for nearly a week in the entire area this last November. Many people who do not have frequent outages were affected. The Real Estate agent we used recently came over. She was surprised that our house was warm and we were having no difficulties. She hadn't taken a shower since the outage started and they were not able to use their furnace. They have two generators, both as large as the one we use and our old one which we have kept to use as a backup for our newer backup generator. They obviously do not know how to use them very well.
We also have friends who live "off the grid" using solar with battery backup and generators powered by propane to charge their batteries during times when the sun is not enough to keep their system going. They have a lot of money invested into their system, but it works well for them.
Do you have a problem with people who use generators during power outages? Our State and Local Government officials do not like people to use generators. They tell the exact same tales that you have told. when pressed they can never seem to point to an actual incident that happened to a homeowner anywhere in our area.
We have been using portable generators for over 40 years, so I have had an acute interest in mishaps caused by them. I know of no incidents locally caused by them. But I do know there are politicians here and elsewhere who would like to see them banned... They typically claim it is for "save the planet global warming" reasons. But I think that it is more about control.