I'm not in the business of starting Big Jewish Debates, but I've never fully understood the Orthodox logic that turning on a light bulb is starting a fire.
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That said, 1) there may be something I'm missing in the Hebrew that makes this more ambiguous than I understand, and 2) you can do whatever you want forever. I'm not gonna get mad at anyone for not turning on lights on the sabbath.
I would argue that a fire is combustion, which is an exothermic chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant (usually oxygen). But light bulbs are specifically filled with inert gasses, isolating the filament from oxygen so that it will not combust.