Oh, and what a brilliant idea this would be: As a signal that Smaug is comming Gandalf makes Bilbo climb some high place and
put fire to it! Haha...
The real reason for Esgaroth's destruction...
Edit: There's a certain article that I found to be quite, erm, disagreeable. I don't want to tripple-post, so I'm editing it in:
http://www.asylum.co.uk/2011/08/25/p...ould-go-wrong/ - and
that's the
worst that can happen, according to them. Pffft!