I finally gave in to my curiosity this weekend and bought Minecraft 1.1. I had largely avoided learning too much about it because I wanted to play through it myself and discover things without the help of guides and FAQs. However, I had a very disturbing situation happen last night. I am reluctant to look through any FAQs to hunt down an explanation because I may come across too many spoilers, so if someone could give me a direct explanation without much spoilerage I'd appreciate it.
My shelter:
To start, here was what the main part of my shelter looked like:
The shelter was constructed of native (i.e. un-mined) stone and cobblestone. I had one 1-block chest and two 2-block chests with signs above them, a furnace/oven, a crafting bench, a couple torches, and a step up to a doorway leading outside. The top right chest contained various stone and iron material, along with coal, flint, charcoal, and gunpowder. The top left chest contained wood and glass material. The smaller bottom left chest contained tools, armor, and assorted bits. Not sure if it matters, but the floor of my shelter was actually the ceiling of an overhanging cliff that was around 40 blocks high off the ground.
The incident:
I had just finished remodeling my shelter, having just filled my new chests and placed the signs above them to help me remember what I put in them. I was in the process of crafting some new iron objects at my bench when BLAM!!! There was an explosion, my screen went red, and my precious treasures went flying. Unfortunately, I didn't have my sound on (since my wife was sleeping on the couch) and don't know if there was any noise going on beforehand to warn me of the impending disaster.
Luckily, my respawn point was close, and I managed to frantically make my way back. To my surprise, it appeared that nearly all my objects were still there. Most were sitting in the same spot that their chest was in. As best I can tell, I was able to recover nearly everything, with the exception of the signs and 2 of the 5 chest blocks. Oddly, the door and torches outside were gone, but the structure itself was untouched save for two holes in the floor (marked "Gone" in the above picture).
What happened?
I'm baffled by what could have happened. I can't imagine a creeper snuck up on me, since at the time there was no way in (I took away the bricks leading up to the door). I've tangled with them before and their explosions have never outright killed me, just wounded me. They also tend to leave big craters, and there seemed to be too little structural damage in this case.
The only explanation I can come up with is that I organized my possessions badly. Should furnaces not be placed next to chests containing combustibles? Should certain materials not be stored together in the same chest, like flint and gunpowder?