Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, as some of you may know my house caught on fire on 3-31-03. The cause was a ceramic heat emitter clamped onto the back of a tortoise tank. We are assuming the clamp failed and fell into the tank. No one was home at the time and I came home to find the fire. The firemen put out the fire and brought out all my surviving animals. All 28 box turtles survived with minor eye irritation and 1 with a small burn on his shell and nose. Elongated tortoise made it out just fine. All were treated by my reptile vet and are 100% healthy now. I lost 2 parakeets and the 2 Holmes Hingebacks that were in the tanks where the fire started. When the firemen handed me my turtles they were so hot I couldn't hold them. Amazing little creatures! Someone told me the melting temperature of plastic is around 200 degrees and all the plastic on all their tanks was melted. If you go to the link below you can see some pictures from the fire. Scroll to the bottom and click on the HOUSE FIRE album. So, check your clamps!!! I use screen tops now that are secured. Live and learn. Dawn
click here

wow! Amazing story. I am sorry for your loss (of turtles, birds and the financial loss) glad no humans were hurt. I used to be so anal about lights an wires in my enclosures buy lately i have been slacking off, not double checking security measures I once worked so hard to keep in place. This is a good reminder. I guess it goes without saying that you'll be more careful too. Glad all those boxies were okay. Yeah they are pretty impressive survivors Thanks for sharing.

Dawn,
I saw your album. Do you think it's ironic that you use a lighter to show relative size of hatchlings??? I once saw an EBT come out of a small depresion by a pine tree that was on fire for about 2 hours durring a control burn on my base. Amazing isn't the word. Hope every thing works out for you.. Blue

Hi, not sure what you ment by showing a lighter for size as being ironic. The fire was NOT caused by me smoking. The heat emitter that was clamped to the back of the tank started the fire. I just wanted to share my story and maybe make others think twice about some things they may take for granted. Please everyone be careful! I have kept tortoises and turtles for almost 10 years now and thought I was being very careful about all the electrical appliances they need. I was wrong. Dawn

I think he was just pointing out the irony that in one of your other albums you use a lighter (an impliment that makes fire) to show the size of your animals. Not a suggestion of the lighter or smoking causing the fire, just simple irony. It would be humorous if it wasn't your house that burned and your animals that died.

You did make me do a double check. I found out of all my lights I do have ONE that has a ceramic emitter that is not wired down tight so it cannot fall off. I will fix that tonight. Normally I am crazy about wiring them all to the lids they are on (some coathanger works if nothing else is available. I use galvanized electric fence wire myself).

You will want to be extra careful with your guys who were down there. I would recommend very frequent soakings and a vet visit for the ones in the most intense heat. I would suspect that organ damage can result at those temps, and we know that they can survive quite a while with organ damage and then die quickly and unexpectedly, but if they are weak, a vet might be able to provide antibiotics to help keep them in top shape while they repair any damage themselves.

Lots of soakings and tlc are probably in order at any case. Give em some worms and cantaloupe from me! I've given dirk a stern talking to about how he escaped near death and now needs to get in gear and mate with pennygirl again this year so hopefully we'll get that first clutch. I don't know if he listened, though, he just kind of hissed and stared at me.

Hey, great minds think alike! All (29 total) turtles went to the vet the day after the fire and then 10 days later for a check up. Physically they are all fine now. Some had eye irritation but are all better now. I know what you mean about internally, we just don't know what damage was done. Thankfully my vet knows me and the turtles and took pity on me and did all exams and eye meds for a CB eastern in trade I had! I LOVE that man! They are all eating and acting normally as of now. Even got 4 clutches of eggs after the fire. I normally keep a health journal on all my turtles and still do, so I have that as a referance to any problems that may arise. They have all been spoiled rotten since the fire with goodies but I need to cut back now or get them a treadmill for their bulging tummies! Thanks again for taking good care of Durk and I hope he proves to be a fertile boy for you this year! Dawn

This happened to me once with a clamp light but the light fell into water. Luckly non of the turtles got electricuted, I guess it flipped the ciricut breaker. But I learned too and make sure that can't happen again.