Some more wood was wanted.

He went out to fetch it, leaving his candle alight, a broken end in a rickety candlestick, on the floor beside the coal-oil.

When he got to the stable it was warm and comfortable; he forgot what he had come for, fell down on a bundle of straw, and went into a dead sleep.

The candle must have fallen over into the oil, the oil exploded, and in a few seconds the wooden house was in flames.

By the time I came rushing back from the slough where I had been breaking the ice for water, the roof had already fallen in.