I first noticed the melts (which is what I call them) a few weeks ago. The light fixture above my bathroom sink had a strange baseball-sized sag to it. At first, I brushed it off, maybe I bought the wrong type of lightbulb and melted the housing? I removed the bulbs and tossed them out as a precautionary measure. When I returned from work I saw something that confused me. The light fixture still sagged on the right side, but now the left side had a hole in it. A smaller, caterpillar-sized hole that I was sure had not been there when I left. The burn (which is what I call these types of melts) looks like a hot metal rod punched a hole through plastic. The edges were singed black and thin sinews of material still connect in some spots. I could understand how the heat from a lightbulb might eventually cause the cheap housing to sag, but this was different. A hole in an isolated area of the housing seemed like something only direct contact with significant heat could do. Plus, the light had been off, and the bulbs were outside in the trash bin.
Here are some photos I took.
A few days later I found another melt. I was lifting the toilet seat to pee when I saw that the spacers which create a gap between the seat and the porcelain rim of the bowl were melted. Well, two of them were, burn melts to be exact. Withered fragments still clung to the center anchors, but like the light fixture, they had black burn marks along the edges. This was the point I became alarmed. With the light fixture there was at least a plausible explanation, but this made no sense. How can something melt so far from a heat source? I thought there could have been a buildup of methane that ignited (maybe static electricity). But this wasn’t some catastrophic explosion, this was a precise melt.
Over the coming days, I discovered more and more melts throughout my apartment. Some sags, and some burns. I found a pint glass that sagged from the lip downwards creating a “U” shape. I found burn melts in my couch, my headphones, and my Nikes. There was also a sag melt in my closet. I have a bunch of wooden hangers, and when I went to hang up my shirts, I found four of them were warped. They were all close to each other and if you held them together you could see the outline of a baseball-sized sphere. This was one of the more concerning discoveries because I don’t think wood can melt.
Yesterday was the most recent melt. I had just finished my breakfast and when I went to leave for work I found the door handle descended and skewed. I jiggled it, trying to get out but I couldn’t get it to open. I’m guessing the internal bits got fused solid, so I ended up going through the window.
Has anyone ever dealt with this type of anomaly before? It seems to strike at random and only within my apartment as I’ve not seen them anywhere else. I wasn’t sure where to go or who to ask. Property damage aside, a terrifying thought struck me in bed last night.
What if a melt gets me?