My 6yr son told me to quit this hobby after almost burning down the house.

[xinumaster]

After our house almost got burned down last Friday 2/24/2006. He told me he does not want the aquarium in the house after the fire alarm tripped.

The cable on the power compact lighting went loose due to frequent opening and closing of the canopy cover and burned the pc cable then that burning cable fell on the floor and burned the ragged and other cables behind the aquarium cabinet. Then flame got larger when it burned the window curtain. luckily, I was home when it happen.


Here is picture of the lighting:

Here is picture of the pc cable:

Here is picture of corner wall and cabinet side:

Here is picture of the window curtain that got burned too.

Cables that got burned: ph probe, orp, power extension cable, neptune controller phone cable.

 

[chem-e]

I'm glad to hear that you didn't have any major damage.

I had a similar problem with my VHO setup. The bulb wasn't sitting correctly in the socket, so it arched burned out the socket. Luckily I was home as well, so I caught it before anything worse happened. I think it was from this experience that I went with a pendant over another retrofit. I don't trust rigging something together anymore

 

[xusnavy]

HOLY COW!!!! Glad to hear that you were home and was able to prevent the fire from burning the entier house down!

Did you have a GFCI connected to your lights?

I noticed that if the plug to the PC light is loose, I can hear a bit of arcing. Stuff like this scares me... that is why I took down my reef tank and went FOWLR. This way, I turn on the lights when I'm home and turn it off before I go to bed. No more timers and no more lights turning on while I'm not home.

In any event, I'm going to get a GFCI and connect all my stuff to it. If there is a short, the GFCI should trip and prevent this.

Glad to hear everyone was okay.

 

[Paladin]

Wow! Good thing you were home to put out the fire...and this reminds me to check my smoke detector. Glad damage wasn't as big as it could have been. Good luck with your tank.

 

[Elite]

Wow... scary..

 

[Paladin]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6839393#post6839393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xusnavy
Did you have a GFCI connected to your lights?

I have everything going through a GFCI, so I was wondering if this type of accident could have been prevented with a GFCI?

 

[sidog1]

Glad to see everything is ok and everyone is safe.

 

[xinumaster]

xusnavy, no the lighting was not on GFCI but all of the pump including external pumps are in GFCI. However yesterday I started putting all equipments now to GFCI.

 

[Apon]

so the live cable disconnected from the light and landed on the floor? How long have you noticed the cable being loose? Not sure if a GFCI would help, good lesson for the rest of us to check our cables for wear.

Perry glad to hear you and the family are ok.

 

[Vincerama2]

GFCI protects against ground faults, not shorts. But it's good to have anyway.

A leaky Oceans Motions Squirt (I didn't tighten the fittings as much as I should have) dripped right into a power strip I had behind the tank and the GFCI tripped immediately, thus flooding my tank when the siphon breaks on my return lines failed (due to being clogged with algae!) It would have been worse without the GFCI, though the power strip breaker also blew.

The short would not trigger a gfci, since current was not drawn to GROUND, but rather through the neutral wire. (Although neutral and ground are tied together at the main service panel, they are not connected at outlets)

In anycase, I'm glad you were able to avoid a total disaster, and it reminds me to go check out my equipment for fire safety too!

You make a good point about the "constant opening and closing" of the hood possibly fatiguing electrical wires at an outlet.

I recall on RC, there were some threads about other fires, started mostly by VHO endcaps. The salty and humid conditions under the canopy should really get some extra attention when we plan our our lighting!

V

 

[xinumaster]

Hi Arnold. Didn't notice the cable was loose until the fire started and tripped the fire alarm. I was in another room when it happened but didn't know something was already burning until I heard the alarm. The fire on the curtain was already above my head when I saw it. I used the water in the tank to put it out. I think I should add another fire alarm device close to the aquarium.

 

[pepe.king.prawn]

wow... i'm sorry to hear of your bad experiences, though it's a relief that you were there to quickly put it out! I had no idea PCs or any flourescent electrical was that dangerous. I'd consult your own conscience before taking your tank down! Best of luck to you

 

[xinumaster]

That night after putting out the fire I sat right infront of the aquarium with quarter of the water gone; I started thinkng about what happened. I told myself that my son is right I should stop this hobby and sell all the corals and equipments I have. The following day I added more s/w and cleaned the tank, added additonal GFCI for lights then turned the MH on and stared at the aquarium for hours. Then, my wife asked me to move the aquarium somewhere in the middle of the living room for better viewing. So, I asked my wife I want a bigger tank. How can I give up specially when you have a wife whose is so understanding about my addiction to s/w.

 

[Sparkss]

well put... just make sure to implement good safety features on the new tank and all should be fine. Or go with a pendant set up, as was mentioned earlier in this thread.

Either way we are glad to hear that no one was hurt and no major damage occurred. You and your family are still together and have a roof over your heads, that is something to smile about

 

[xusnavy]

I'm now paranoid about this. Your breaker didn't turn off because the arcing started on the low voltage side of the ballast and the current was still too low to trip the breaker. I realized the following measures would help prevent fires.

1. Do not use flourescent retrofits. Instead, buy a full fixture lighting system. This way, there is a less chance of the end cap plugs working it's way loose from the bulb. If this does happen, the cable will be enclosed in the housing, which is typically metal and will short to ground.

2. Switch to metal halide with a mogul base. With this setup, the bulb is screwed into the mogul base. Therefore, it is unlikely it will separate from the plug and will not cause any arcing.

3. If you have a retrofit, plug the light sytem into a GFCI. Then, wrap the cable and plug in aluminum foil and ground the foil. This way, if a short does happen, the cables will heat up and the insulation will break down. This will cause the wires to be exposed and hopefully touch the foil which will direct the voltage path to ground thus causing the GFCI to trip.

I have retrofits right now. I'm going to do number 3 as a preventative measure until I upgrade to a metal halide system.

-Mel

 

[km133688]

take some time to explain to your little one about why it won't happen again. They won't undertand anything technical obviously but they will feel better if dad takes them along to buy the "extra" equipment that will keep everyone safe. It may be your little boy is afraid of the unknown. don't ingnore this.

good luck, Kevin

 

[xinumaster]

Hi Kevin, thanks for the advice.

 

[bladze]

wow scray.

 

[dannieboiz]

yah this is pretty scarey stuff..... I also had my PC catching on fire, I couldn't tell if it's a lose wire or what but my entire socket start smoking up and I can smell it. This was in my bedroom and I was present at the time. Imagine if I was at work.

Just the other day while playing around with my tank. My T5 end caps started blazing up in smoke, didn't come from wire, but from the pins of the bulbs cause I had knocked it and twisted one end lose shorting the connections. Not sure how that was possible but had to buy new end caps. Now all caps are screwed down as tight as possible.

Thanks for the heads up, I'm gonna put some GFCI outlets in later on today.

 

[Skorpinok]

Forgive me for not knowing - but what is GFCI?

Perry, that's scary stuff. Glad to hear that you were at home and no one was hurt.