Malster1
New member
I had a Fire at my house on the morning of March 9, 2006. The fire must have start sometime after I went to bed around 1:30 AM. I woke to smell something a mist around 7:28am. After checking I found it....I am not quite sure what started the fire, but from what the fire department and I were able to determine is that it must have been an electrical fire.
The fire started and ended in the garage. Good news there. When I woke up I smelled what seemed to be plastic burning. At first I though it was coming from outside, but then jumped out of bed to see if it was in my house. There was little or no smoke in the house, and as I ran down the hallway I felt something wrong. While looking around it seemed my fish tank wasn't running correctly. I knew at that moment that something was WAY wrong. I opened my door to the garage and found it was engulfed in black smoke and I could see a yellow glow from between my sump under the desk and behind my Frag fish tank. I could not see in the garage, so I grabbed my keys and ran to my work car (good thing I took it home last night) and removed my fire extinguisher. Then I ran to the breaker box and flipped the main circuit off (thinking electrical fire and all). Then into the garage I went thinking Deep breath and hold it! From here I put the fire out. YEAH!!!!!!! I still couldn't see but, it looked like it was out. Ran back out side and flipped the circuit back on to vent the garage. I was hoping that I got it all so that it wouldn't start a backdaft. Using my remote I opened the garage just to see a HUGE cloud of BLACK smoke come out. The chimney was blowing out black smoke at that time too. As soon as the garage opened I shut off the power once more. After doing so I couldn't call 911 from my house phones. Duh, I shut the power off and they are all cordless... Here we go, time to call from the cell phone. CHP answers and I tell them I had a garage fire and I needed my local fire department out to inspect it. So they dispatch fire. Now being that I'm only about 6 blocks from the fire department (Good thing sometimes), the response time was great. One police officer shows up and then the fire truck.
The fire guy's look at the damage and one uses a thermal camera to look for hot spots. After making sure that the fire is completely out we notice that my sump is still making a little noise. Dam plastic is still so hot the salt water is still boiling after 20 minutes. They next start to check and see what is damaged and decide to remove the sump. Well, it's kind of easier to remove than putting it in, now that most of the plumbing was melted away. One melted hose to cut out and out it came. Once it was in the driveway we were able to look at it a little closer.
The sump was melted/ burned about 6 inches from the total height it once stood so proud the night before. My new Protein skimmer was fused to the sump since they were both made of plastic and it too was melted down about 10 inches. Even my new auto water top off system I just completed two days prior was gone. Most of the power cords from the pumps and heater were melted and that's the only thing that leads us to think that maybe something got hot and shorted out, causing the fire. I think I remember someone saying their tank was like the black hole, you just seem to keep spending more and more money on it and it never stops. Well I think it's true in my case as well.
After the fire department left I ran and installed two powerhead pumps and a heat in my main 100 gallon tank, hoping that it the water didn't get contaminated too much. I couldn't think that I was about to loose all of my fish and coral's! As for the Frag tank above the fire.. I couldn't find ET (Black clown fish), my only conclusion for him is that he boiled, choked and died and then maybe slipped into the sump though on of the hoses before they melted. RIP little guy. As for the coral banded shrimp, sand sifting star, turbo snail, and coral Frags they were all looking somewhat okay. I removed all of the coral and put them in the other tank in the garage hoping that it didn't get contaminated too much as well. I caught the rest of the live stock and moved them into other tanks in the house.
By nightfall, My sister stopped me from cleaning and told me to start working on my tanks before it get's too late! I still needed to get my fish tank setup again, because if I didn't I'd be up all night working on it (like that would be a new thing). My buddy Jasen's show up to help and he decided that he and my mom should run to the fish store and pick up my replacement protein skimmer while I start working on removing the burnt plumbing. My sister and my other friend Missie run to her house to pick up a spare Sump for me to use as a temp until I can replace the one I had. I removed all of the old plumbing and installed new lines during that time. We broke for dinner and then back to the plumbing I went. Around 1:30am I finished my new plumbing and we started up the water again. Fish looked really happy at that moment.
In closing for my fire day, I have this to be thankful for, My wanting to get that extra 20 minute's of sleep (Snooze button happy), My quick thinking to contain the fire, My loving family for all of their help, and my dear friends for coming and helping me in my time of need.
It's now been a few day's since the fire and I have cleaned up most of the garage. This rain's really slowing me down. My temp sump is working like a charm, but as you have seen I posted a thread about a needed to get a large sump soon. I setup a slide show of my damage. If your interested in seeing the pictures click on the following link:
Fire Pictures
The fire started and ended in the garage. Good news there. When I woke up I smelled what seemed to be plastic burning. At first I though it was coming from outside, but then jumped out of bed to see if it was in my house. There was little or no smoke in the house, and as I ran down the hallway I felt something wrong. While looking around it seemed my fish tank wasn't running correctly. I knew at that moment that something was WAY wrong. I opened my door to the garage and found it was engulfed in black smoke and I could see a yellow glow from between my sump under the desk and behind my Frag fish tank. I could not see in the garage, so I grabbed my keys and ran to my work car (good thing I took it home last night) and removed my fire extinguisher. Then I ran to the breaker box and flipped the main circuit off (thinking electrical fire and all). Then into the garage I went thinking Deep breath and hold it! From here I put the fire out. YEAH!!!!!!! I still couldn't see but, it looked like it was out. Ran back out side and flipped the circuit back on to vent the garage. I was hoping that I got it all so that it wouldn't start a backdaft. Using my remote I opened the garage just to see a HUGE cloud of BLACK smoke come out. The chimney was blowing out black smoke at that time too. As soon as the garage opened I shut off the power once more. After doing so I couldn't call 911 from my house phones. Duh, I shut the power off and they are all cordless... Here we go, time to call from the cell phone. CHP answers and I tell them I had a garage fire and I needed my local fire department out to inspect it. So they dispatch fire. Now being that I'm only about 6 blocks from the fire department (Good thing sometimes), the response time was great. One police officer shows up and then the fire truck.
The fire guy's look at the damage and one uses a thermal camera to look for hot spots. After making sure that the fire is completely out we notice that my sump is still making a little noise. Dam plastic is still so hot the salt water is still boiling after 20 minutes. They next start to check and see what is damaged and decide to remove the sump. Well, it's kind of easier to remove than putting it in, now that most of the plumbing was melted away. One melted hose to cut out and out it came. Once it was in the driveway we were able to look at it a little closer.
The sump was melted/ burned about 6 inches from the total height it once stood so proud the night before. My new Protein skimmer was fused to the sump since they were both made of plastic and it too was melted down about 10 inches. Even my new auto water top off system I just completed two days prior was gone. Most of the power cords from the pumps and heater were melted and that's the only thing that leads us to think that maybe something got hot and shorted out, causing the fire. I think I remember someone saying their tank was like the black hole, you just seem to keep spending more and more money on it and it never stops. Well I think it's true in my case as well.
After the fire department left I ran and installed two powerhead pumps and a heat in my main 100 gallon tank, hoping that it the water didn't get contaminated too much. I couldn't think that I was about to loose all of my fish and coral's! As for the Frag tank above the fire.. I couldn't find ET (Black clown fish), my only conclusion for him is that he boiled, choked and died and then maybe slipped into the sump though on of the hoses before they melted. RIP little guy. As for the coral banded shrimp, sand sifting star, turbo snail, and coral Frags they were all looking somewhat okay. I removed all of the coral and put them in the other tank in the garage hoping that it didn't get contaminated too much as well. I caught the rest of the live stock and moved them into other tanks in the house.
By nightfall, My sister stopped me from cleaning and told me to start working on my tanks before it get's too late! I still needed to get my fish tank setup again, because if I didn't I'd be up all night working on it (like that would be a new thing). My buddy Jasen's show up to help and he decided that he and my mom should run to the fish store and pick up my replacement protein skimmer while I start working on removing the burnt plumbing. My sister and my other friend Missie run to her house to pick up a spare Sump for me to use as a temp until I can replace the one I had. I removed all of the old plumbing and installed new lines during that time. We broke for dinner and then back to the plumbing I went. Around 1:30am I finished my new plumbing and we started up the water again. Fish looked really happy at that moment.
In closing for my fire day, I have this to be thankful for, My wanting to get that extra 20 minute's of sleep (Snooze button happy), My quick thinking to contain the fire, My loving family for all of their help, and my dear friends for coming and helping me in my time of need.
It's now been a few day's since the fire and I have cleaned up most of the garage. This rain's really slowing me down. My temp sump is working like a charm, but as you have seen I posted a thread about a needed to get a large sump soon. I setup a slide show of my damage. If your interested in seeing the pictures click on the following link:
Fire Pictures
