Warning...

[Bushbaby]

Good Morning

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to prevent a disaster by having installed smoke alarms in each of our snake rooms. If it was not for that, I could have lost all my baby snakes and some priceless ones, or even our house could have burnt down. An electrical fire started, it did trip the electricity, but too late. Luckily BV was home and when he heard what sounded like a truck that kept on reversing, he went to investigate. When he opened my snake room door it was just smoke and head high flames. Luckily we have a CO2 fire extinguisher which BV then grabbed to put out the flames.

Luckily none of my snakes got injured, none of my racks or the tubs that were in them were effected. Only my spare tubs I kept in the corner next to my rack had melted. That's the only damage. We were VERY lucky!!! If BV was not home, I would hate to think what we would have come home to

When I inspected what had happened I noticed that my good ole trusty computherm thermostat was the source of the fire. The adapter where the 2 pronged plug goes into is what caused the fire. For those of you that still make use of them, please just be careful. Possibly time for an upgrade to newer thermostats is an option. I for one have already ordered some.

Wishing you all a pleasant long weekend!!

[Ruan Stander]

Oddly, just yesterday, late afternoon I suddenly thought of the event of a fire breaking out and me not being prepared for it in any way whatsoever.

Glad to hear that all your animals came out of it unharmed.

[froot]

Glad you didn't suffer great loss. It sounds to me like no negligence involved here, but it is testament to my total dislike for these 2 prong plugs. I HATE them! Here we are in the 21st century and I've yet to see one 2 prong socket that works like it should. From phone chargers to hair dryers the constant fiddling of the plug in the socket in order to furnish electricity into the appliance has resulted in the surgical refitment of the standard 3 prong plug. The electrical connections in 2 prong sockets are inherently bad and yet SABS approved it for commercial roll-out, a touchy connection has electrical resistance, with current flowing through that resistance heat is generated and without vigilance that heat can become fire very quickly. My suggestion is to replace all 2 prong plugs in your home with the more secure 3 prong variety. I've even used those screw connector blocks to power cage heating and they work just as well or even better as long as the screws are tight.

That for me would be the best preventative measure in Bushbaby's case. Smoke alarms and fire extinguishers are great but they need someone home to respond, and luckily someone was. First prize would be to automatically stop supply before smoke is allowed to escape electrical equipment - easier said than done. It would be possible though to tap an output from a smoke alarm unit and use it to cut power to the room if smoke is detected.

[Savu]

I couldnt agree with you more. I have also had endless frustration with these 2 pin plugs. Only problem is,if you replace them with the standard 3 pin plugs,i believe you will lose the warranty on the electrical appliances. But i rather take that chance than the frustration

[Athlordian]

First of all...PHEW! I'm happy to hear that you dodged that bullet and that your babies can slither away unscathed! There have been so many instances of this happening and I think the problem originates in the combination of materials and stuff we employ. Think about it; heat, wood, plastic, electricity...it's a crappy combo, but for the novice herper or breeder, there aren't many other ways around NOT using these materials.

Check out this post I did in November of last year. I firmly believe most of us underestimate the importance of having a decent extinguisher around.

https://www.facebook.com/am.ballpythons/posts/708886545806639

First prize would be to automatically stop supply before smoke is allowed to escape electrical equipment - easier said than done. It would be possible though to tap an output from a smoke alarm unit and use it to cut power to the room if smoke is detected.

Would a relay, on the buzzer's output inside the smoke alarm, not be able to kick off the feed to a room? So when the buzzer in the smoke alarm gets power, the relay gets power too, which then flicks N/C to N/O, thereby killing power to the room...or is it not that simple?

[froot]

Yes that's the idea. Smoke alarms are usually battery powered so you would need to buffer the alarm output so the batteries don't power the relay coil, I think a contactor would be better which is basically a relay that can switch larger amounts of power.