[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The lifespan of a CFL bulbs largely depends on how often it's turned off and on. If you turn your lights out, on leaving the room (as we've all been told to do, countless times) — your CFL bulbs will burn out long before the numbers of hours use touted on the package.

I once combined a screw-in light sensor switch with a CFL bulb porch light. I had to replace the bulb in a couple of weeks. Then I noticed the problem. The sensor switch turned the CFL bulb on, when the sun was setting. Then the light from the bulb caused the sensor to turn the bulb off again. And so on — for about 20 minutes, until it got dark enough to end the cycle. The switching on and off reduced the life of the CFL bulb from an advertised 8,000 hours to about 150 hours.

[9422WMR]

I’ll bet an incandescent bulb never exploded and caused a fire. It may have been in contact with a flammable object, or may have been filled with gasoline, (remember in the prison movies?) but they never exploded on their own.