This doesn't apply to buying an iron, but we had the scare of our lives, and luckily, we were home. At the time we had teenagers. One of them had left the iron plugged into the wall socket. There was nothing else plugged into this wall socket except the iron. The iron was OFF and cold, but the fire started in the wall within the wall socket! The utility room was in the daylight basement in this particular home. we smelled smoke and went down to check. Because we caught it in time, the Fire Dept. quickly put it out with minor damage. From this experience, I never leave an iron plugged in, unless I am nearby and using it. Even if the iron is off, as in our case, apparently it can still be a fire hazard.