Fire Prevention and Birthdays

[redmare]

I had my sims have a birthday party for their toddler daughter, Oriel, as she had all her toddler-gained skills and as her mother Selma was pregnant again I didn't want 3 dependent kids in the house. As Oriel blew out the candles, the table caught fire. Everyone panicked. One of my sims nearly got burnt in the fire, as did some of the guests. The fire department came, and it was all all right, but Oriel didn't age up, and they got failed party moodlets and the kitchen got messed up. I'm not really sure how to prevent more fires like this. Could it have been that the sunflowers on the table were too close? I want to have a new party for Oriel, but I don't want to burn down the house. What should I do? And also, why didn't she age up? She'd blown out the candles....

[Ricalynn]

Actually as far as the game is concerned because the cake caught on fire the interaction was never finished like it should have been for Oriel to age up.  All you have to do is buy another birthday cake.  The sunflowers on the table weren't the problem as it's just a small chance to happen whenever you use the cake but it's rare.    Having a Sim that's a firefighter or having the Fireproof Homestead LTR (can't remember what EP that was) are surefire ways of it never happening.   If it ever happens again, you can direct any of your Sims to extinguish the fire so that it causes less damage.

[redmare]

Thanks! I wanted to have my sims extinguish the fire, but one was pregnant and the other was holding the birthday girl, and it wouldn't let me put her down, so I didn't want to take any chances. Thanks again!

[CSquared2]

To minimize the potential danger to the rest of the family, you can always put your cake in a separate yard or room and lock the gate or door to prevent anyone but the birthday boy/girl or an accompanying parent from entering.  Then at least they'll drop the action from their queues on their own when they can't get in and aren't near the fire if it breaks out.  It's pretty rare, though.  I think I've only had it happen in my game once.