Very tragic news... everyone check their electrical outlets!

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I got a horrifying email late last night from a friend and fellow gecko keeper in New York. It was too late to call him back last night, but I spoke to him this morning. His house burned last weekend, and he lost every animal he had. It was an electrical fire.

He lost:
- 250+ leopard geckos
- 50+ knobtail geckos
- 30+ fat-tail geckos
- 30+ bearded dragons
- chuckwallas
- his pet pair of uromastyx

I think something like this happening has GOT to be my biggest fear. I cannot imagine what my friend is going through, and he is suffering terribly with MS right now just from the stress and grief. The only thing spared was 2 racks and an incubator he had in the garage.

I'll be sending him a couple of geckos on Monday, but in the meantime I will be checking electrical outlets in my reptile room like a crazy woman with OCD.

 

[Wreptile]

My stomach just dropped.
I can't imagine the feeling of losing everything, especially my animals that I have bonded with so well.
I thoughts are with him.
Oh my.

 

[Halley]

Wow that really sucks.

 

[Sunrise Reptile]

One of my biggest fears too. At least he came away from it uninjured! :main_yes:

 

[shadowx362]

That is TERRIBLE!! That is one of my fears as well.......

 

[fallen_angel]

Yes, at least he still has his life. I couldn't imagine losing all of our beloved animals, our hearts and thoughts go out to your poor dear friend

 

[Kristi23]

That is a huge fear I have, too. How do you check your outlets to know if they're okay? We have an old house and it really freaks me out.

 

[Adinar]

My heart goes out to him. It's absolutly horrible losing one pet, I can't imagine what it would be like loosing that many. I've also pondered if that could happen here at our place, and sadly I could see it happening. (Since the landlords are cheap and cut every corner possible.) But we try and take every precaution we can, since that's all you can do really.

But I must say, I'm glad to see that there are decent people in the world yet by doing what you are doing for him. Kudos.

 

[yellermelon]

^^ My biggest fear as well....my thoughts go out to your friend Marcia!

 

[mutley375]

GASP!!!! hate to hear anything like that.
I have thought of the same thing...
not only our geckos but dogs too, Miller our oldest is gonna be twelve in fall, he is like our first kid.
Marcia, prayers out to your friend, thankfully he was not injured,

 

[preacherman]

Marcia, I'm very sorry to hear about your friend. Not to be insensitive, but do you know if his home owner's insurance covered the fire? My understanding is that keeping reptiles in your home will void your insurance policy (due to liability issues as well as concerns over the heating elements that we use). I remember this being discussed in the past, and it's definately something that all reptile keepers should be aware of.

 

[vctkiller]

I am so sorry for your friend. Losing even one pet feels like your losing 100 pets.

 

[DLS Reptile]

Oh my gosh!!! This is terrible. I cannot even imagine what he is going through. This makes me sick to even think about it. It is one thing to lose personal possesions in a fire but to lose your pets on top of that is just heartbreaking. I cannot even fathom this happening. Very,very scary.

 

[Bellalee]

Oh my.. my thoughts go out to your friend.. I'm so sorry for him.. And you are incredibly sweet to help him out..

 

[Zynx_Keekeio]

the place I work at just had a fire before I started there, we lost quite a few birds but most other animals were rescued, but had smoke inhalition

 

[2bacop]

I just had to move my tanks to the other side of the room, because my electrical outlet had burnt out, there was black all on the outside of it. I'm just glad that I caught it in time! My house is older and the electric needs to be redone but my landlord wont do it.

 

[CHAMpion]

This is absolutely terrible make sure to tell him he's in our prayers, but I have to agree thank god he is alive

 

[tony]

i would just like to thank everyone who has sent me emails and there prayers well i dont know what i will do but the pain of losing everything that i had worked so hard for is all gone thank god i have a beautful friend like marcia well iam trying very hard to keep going but to be honest my m.s has put me in a wheelchair iam only 37 years old and its a gift that we wake up every day well iam going to try to start this up all over again but the fact remains i dont have another 20 thou to put into animals but with the gracie of god i will due. it in due time i would like to thank every one for there sympathy and prayers god bless us all. to every one have a great breeding season god bless all of you thanks so much marcia i love you so much from the bottom of my heart

 

[Shem]

Ahhh man, that's depressing.

 

[ElapidSVT]

oman.. so sad to hear that!

That is a huge fear I have, too. How do you check your outlets to know if they're okay? We have an old house and it really freaks me out.

don't overload your circuits. each breaker should not be loaded with more than about 1250 Watts for long-term, continuous use.

Watts/Volts = Amps rearranged, that becomes Amps*Volts=Watts

most circuit breakers are rated at 15 Amps and the usual voltage in the US is 115V

15*115= 1725 Watts maximum rating

all the outlets in a room may be on a single breaker along with the lights too, so a large herp room may be seriously overloading the circuit.

look at all your devices on each circuit and add up all the wattages, or convert the amp rating to watts... and make sure it's within the safety zone. You might want to add more circuit breakers so that each outlet is on a separate circuit.

be safe, people!
also... don't run extension cords underneath carpeting or area rugs, plug things directly into outlets rather than using extension cords.
feel the cords.. they should not be hot to the touch.
if you smell ozone search out the source immediately!