David Eddings burns his office down

"I was down in my garage when it happened," David Eddings told
reporters outside the smouldering remains of his office in Carson City,
Nevada, "making reparis to my broken-down Excalibur sports car. I was
using water to flush out the gas tank when some fluid started leaking
out, and I began wondering what the hell it was. I didn't want to leave
a tankful of gasoline slowly leaking onto the garage floor, so I lit a
piece of paper and threw it into the puddle of liquid, to test if it was
flammable. In retrospect, I can see that this was a lapse of judgement
on my part." [Private Eye]

Also: in Cambridge for the weekend!