There is a nice wind turbine in an office park nearby where I live but I can't help but think the strobing of the blades must irritate the employees.
Wind turbines belong on hills and off shore - those are the best places. Anyone who puts a wind turbine near a house (or the other way around, even) must be an idiot.
Well actually these things can fail when the governor which limits their speed fails. They are limited in how fast they can spin and when they are allowed to spin at high speeds, they can fly apart. You can find video of this one youtube as well.
The catching fire likely comes from imbalanced blades and lack of/improper maintaince.
Last I heard for one fire of a turbine was that the brakes failed which meant the turbine tried to spin too fast causing the gearbox and motor to overheat, leading to a fire. Lack of proper maintenance or perhaps lack of important redundant systems, I don't know. There's nothing inherently flawed about wind turbines that should lead to them randomly catching fire with no easily preventable cause.