Fence Fire

Well I don't have a before picture. But this is the after.  This used to be a brown privacy fence and my neighbors had a chain link fence on the other side.  At abut 2 or 3 pm yesterday I was in my back bed room working on these orders I need to get out soon.  Well, my dog start barking all crazy like they do when someone is normally next door. This house, supposedly the back owns, no one lives there.  I looked all around out front because of their barking, didn't see anyone anywhere. No one in there yards, so I assumed my dogs were barking at nothing.  But it sounded like someone was in a neighboring yard by how they were barking. (If you have animals or dogs, you probably know what I mean).  5-10 mins later they came back inside and layed down, so I assumed nothing was wrong.  About 5:30, Im on the phone with my mom, calls fails won't dial back out, but this is my AT&T cell phone.  My internet won't work either. I reset the router, and my computers, still won't work.  Lets say I am super lucky I have a house phone. The only reason I have one is  bc the phone company makes me have it since I have internet.  I walk into the dining room and kitchen, I see smoke. So I immediately start flipping out.  I look, my whole rich hand side fence is on fire. I mean flames were up about 2 feet off the fence. Im not exaggerating either.  So I called the fire dept, they come and save the day. But they told me the fire is from OLD charcoal.  Im not so sure I believe this. The last time I dumped charcoal was over a week ago.  How can charcoal stay "hot" this long to spark a fire? I think someone either started it or since there is fires everywhere around us, maybe it was ashes etc from another fire.  But it is still scary no matter to not know how it started, to just look out your window and see your fence in flames.  The worst part is.. If I would work everyday 8 to 530 like I used to at Beck, I would not have caught the fire when I did.  The damage would have been A LOT worse.