I have one lot in Pleasantview in which my sims are constantly spontaneously combusting. It occurs to me that if I bulldoze the lot, this will stop. But I don't want to get rid of the house that I really like and spent so much time building. I move one family out and another family in, but it keeps happening. The "stay things shrub" may have something to do with the continued occurrence after the sims moved, since it causes other things on my lots to remain the same (doesn't just retain the furniture). How do I keep my sims from succumbing to spontaneous combustion?

You patch your game.

I'm pretty sure that I have all patches installed.

Then there's something wrong and you need to troubleshoot, following the FAQ.

But "pretty sure" is not an absolute. It hurts nothing to go ahead and try to patch again. The attempt will just fail if it finds the path already in place.

In future, when you make a lot you particularly like, it's a good idea to package it, so that if something happens to corrupt it, you can just replace it.

I just downloaded the patches and my computer said that it had already been done. We'll see what happens, but is this necessarily the game malfunctioning? I guess I really wanted to know if there is a mod that stops spontaneous combustion or if there's a particular trick to stop it.

Mods are to fix game annoying behavior, but this isn't normal game behavior if you are patched, because the Seasons patch fixed spontaneous combustion. So if you are patched and this is still happening either your patch hasn't worked-which is strange or something is wrong with your game. Did you recently put on any mods? I'd be pulling anything new and play testing. I would also run hood checker and the check on the Bat Box.

Hopefully re-downloading helped. I'm going to try it right now. I haven't gotten any new mods recently... I'll post whether it is fixed or not.

Still happening, even though I am now completely certain that the patches are in place. I have identified a mod that could possibly be causing the problem, but I don't have a problem on any other lot. So I'll continue to monitor it and try to figure it out.

Is there a particular place sims are standing when they burst into flames? Since this is only happening on one lot, I'm wondering if there's not an invisible fire stuck somewhere. If there is, Pescado's LotDebugger ought to be able to fix it.

Tip: When you build a lot you like and think you may want to use again sometime, bin it before you move any sims in, so you'll have a clean copy to reuse later.

There isn't a particular spot that it happens. Usually the sim is outside or has recently been outside. It happens in front of the house, in the kitchen, and most recently in the dining room. I can check out the LotDebugger though.