Fire can be cause by heat or by an electrical fault. To address the first one, ensure that there is sufficient circulation to cool your computer. This means from the cpu (buy a better fan - this is where your heat will be generated from, use a mobile cpu if possible or if you don't need that much computer power, use a Crusoe Meta chip which only use 1 W of power compare to a PIII using around 35-45 W. The hard drive also can heat up, consider a cooling fan for it. The case requires good circulation -- if you understand a little electricity, I recover the fan from dead power supplies rather than forking out the 15-20 dollars they want for an additional case fan. Keep our computer inside and out clean - dust bunnies act as an insulator for heat. You may also want to invest in a system annunciator that indicates the temperature of your critical components in your system.
To prevent electrical faults, make sure you use good quality cables that are rated for the load (i.e. don't use a cheap extension chord), make sure that your wiring has a ground, keep your distances to the outlet short (the longer the distance, the higher the gauge of wire you will need), don't bury your cables under the rug or carpet. Feel the cords once in while to see if it is warm to the touch, if it is then the current draw is too high for the cable or if has been fine for the longest time, then something has gone wrong with your equipment that is causing a larger draw on electricity. Don't buy electronics that have not been CSA or UL approved.
That's about it off the top of my head.
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