another fire strikes one of our own

Grant whitmer lost his entire collection and home from a fire. Luckily his family is ok. He got some burns but the collectuon was a total loss. Just another reminder to check your electrical and your heat sources carefully. My prayers and thoughts go out to grant and his family.

That's terrible, I'm glad that his family is ok.

That is absolutely horrible. :(
Glad that the family is ok though. Do they know what the cause of the fire was yet?

Geez... my thoughts go out to him. At least the family was okay. Do you know what caused the fire?

Thats terrible, feel very bad for them. Do you have a link to their facebook or story?
I wanna know more about them and the situation!

The story is on ks. From what ive heard the loss was total to the house and collection. The thought is it started in the snake room and was electrical. Grant suffered 2nd degree burns to the face getting out.

Do you mind giving me a link? I cant seem to find it lol, sorry! :P

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1966799,1966902

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Originally Posted by snake lab

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1966799,1966902

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Thank you!

One main reason I say Stay away from the clip insulator sets on Flexwatt, When they get loose they spark. Which is capable of causing problems like fires to happen.


Solder every connection and do so the right way and you should never have problems unless you overload the circuits.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

One main reason I say Stay away from the clip insulator sets on Flexwatt, When they get loose they spark. Which is capable of causing problems like fires to happen.


Solder every connection and do so the right way and you should never have problems unless you overload the circuits.

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Good to know... especially since I use those clip insulators :(

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Originally Posted by ReptilesK2

Good to know... especially since I use those clip insulators :(

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Seen it happen when they come loose, T-stat kicks on/off and you see small blue sparks. Which if house is dusty will ignite it and or melt the tubs burning the snakes.

When wiring up anything take your time and test it. When I solder and plug in flexwatt, I tug on the wire as its plugged in. If all still a go ill be good to go.

I have struggled to think about this over the past couple of days.

I know how hard it is, and how long it lasts.

But I didn't lose my home. Grant did. That's an entirely different level.

I am really sad about this. I trust that Grant will find strength within, and strength from others, as we did.

And things will never be the same.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

One main reason I say Stay away from the clip insulator sets on Flexwatt, When they get loose they spark. Which is capable of causing problems like fires to happen.


Solder every connection and do so the right way and you should never have problems unless you overload the circuits.

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Now you got me all worried lol. Is there a video or a set of pics on exactly what youre talking about? I learn better by seeing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GPUj...ature=youtu.be

I feel for him and wish him and his family the best.. Is that the same Grant Whitmer that fought MMA?

I hope that he gets back on his feet soon it is a devastating loss.

I am going to add a recommendation to soldering flexwatt. Use heater cord not cheap lamp cord. It is higher power rating but also higher heat and will catch on fire at the source of an arc unlike plastic lamp type cord, it is a few cents more but worth the cost IMO.

Nothing can replace checking every connection on a regular basis. I clean my rack once a month and check every connection and the flexwatt during the cleaning every time.

Ok, now I'm freaking out. I bought my racks from RBI already wired with flexwatt - I have no idea how to check the connections - you can barely get to them.

Are the premade racks from RBI soldered or clipped - do I need to be worried about this.

Any help is appreciated.

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Originally Posted by Robyn@SYR

And things will never be the same.

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I went through a similar situation in late '09 when I lost my entire collection to a T-Stat malfunction that resulted in my rack system melting around my snakes. Luckly there was no fire and I did not loose my home. But, you are right, things will never be the same, and I am just now getting back into the BP community.

My thoughts are with Grant and his family. I'm glad they are all safe.

Every time I hear of something like this my heart goes out to them. It is a devastating loss and I don't think there are words that can provide comfort.

God my heart hurts for him. I don't know the feeling of your life crumbling in seconds around you and I don't want to. It's so sad. And so very close to home for me.

Grant if there's anything you need help with I'm in Barre and willing to devote anything you guys need. Clean up, anything.


Check out what's new on my website... www.Homegrownscales.com

Regardless of what kind of racks you have , home built, pro built, all can be a fire hazard. Being diligent and having a case of ocd about you connections and electrical components is key. Inspecting is key. Never band aid fix a potential issue. Also make sure fire extinguishers are in place and smoke detectors are working properly. I put in a sprinkler system in the snake rooms and it was pretty easy to do considering i have a drop ceiling. I have 3 sprnkler heads in the room and 1 in the walk in incubator. Total cost was around 600 bucks and so worth it.

6ft extension cords you buy for 1-2$ are fine for flexwatt as they are 16g and handle 13amps/1800watts. No one will ever over load that wire or cause it to overheat.

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As the owner of Vision Products, this fire and the other 3 or 4 fires that I have heard about in the last year are incredibly disturbing and have kept me up at night wondering what could have caused them.

I have talked with many of the players involved in some of these fires and a disturbing pattern seems to be forming and it involves cheap Chinese power strips used to plug all of the heating elements and thermostats into.

Back in the old days, power strips used to cost quite a bit and were made in the USA and had a metal case around where the numerous plugs were situated. Today, we all go to Home Depot or Walmart and grab 2 plastic power strips (made in china) for $4.99 and never give it a second thought.

We think nothing about paying $1000 for a rack, thousands of dollars for breeder Ball pythons and hundreds of dollars for high quality thermostats and then we splice the whole thing together using a plastic, made in China, $2.49 power strip.

On top of that, how many of us actually read the label on the power strip to see how many watts it will safely accept and then factor in exactly how many watts we are actually plugging into these things? I know that I have been guilty of overloading cheap power strips and I have even had two of them short out, melt the plastic case a bit and turn smokey black. Luckily, they were both on concrete floors with nothing close to set a fire.

I recently went out and bought some higher quality power strips and I got the smoke alarms connected into the alarm system and I feel a bit better about all the electrical gadgets that I have running at my facility.

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^ Very good point. Don't mess around with this stuff folks.

All the Power Strips I buy are $8 each 200 joules surge protection and handle 1825w

The Higher the Joules the more youll pay and better protection you get. 200 joules is plenty per rack that is under 200 watts. My average Surge power strip maxes at 60watts.

Just dont buy off brand, and if you can buy the ones in computer sections as their rated to handle electronics better than whats sold in general stores near extension cords..

For the people worrying over soldering vs clips please don't. It's really a preference IMO. You can screw up soldering too. It's really the quality of construction that matters. When using clips you absolutely have to make sure they are securely in place. Both my racks use clips and I've had no problems at all with.

As someone else mentioned, I'd be more worried about the surge strip you use.

I don't really trust those little plastic covers either. We crimp the metal clips onto the flexwatt and then wrap the heck out of them and the edges of flexwatt with electrical tape.

Ok so i watched the video and that all makes sense to me and is something i would feel comfortable doing but i dont get why that method is safer than using the plastic clips? Like once you finished you just wrapped up everything that was exposed in electrical tape... So if i just went over the plastic connections with electrical tape wouldnt that be the same?

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Ok so i watched the video and that all makes sense to me and is something i would feel comfortable doing but i dont get why that method is safer than using the plastic clips? Like once you finished you just wrapped up everything that was exposed in electrical tape... So if i just went over the plastic connections with electrical tape wouldnt that be the same?

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Using the tape is better over the plastic covers yes, But clips and solder 2 different methods of wiring up.

Clips being they over time can get loose and cause problems. When Solder is loose you lose connection and no heat.

As long as you check the clips often making sure their not wiggling on the flexwatt and insulate with electrical tape you should be fine.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

6ft extension cords you buy for 1-2$ are fine for flexwatt as they are 16g and handle 13amps/1800watts. No one will ever over load that wire or cause it to overheat.

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True, but the heater cable the insulation will not burn unlike the plastic insulation on cheap cords if the connection arcs the insulation will not catch on fire. That is why I suggest it. The small additional cost adds a small amount more safety.

Hate to hijack this thread, but it has gone off. I remember somewhere being told when buying power strips, do not buy any with surge protection built in. Those don't work well if you are using them between the thermostat and one or two racks. Maybe someone here can shed some light on this.

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Originally Posted by Don

Hate to hijack this thread, but it has gone off. I remember somewhere being told when buying power strips, do not buy any with surge protection built in. Those don't work well if you are using them between the thermostat and one or two racks. Maybe someone here can shed some light on this.

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They work, But cheap strips have a long delay which will cause your electronic components to be exposed to surges. You want to buy ones that has the shortest Delay in nanoseconds. This will insure the fastest surge protection

This is the one I use in my reptile room:

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-6-Outle...ata/B000IF51UQ

Even though it has six outlets, I never use more than two. I don't see the delay, or now know if it is any good or not. I thought I was good until this thread. I am not an electrician, but have done everything I can to increase the safety of my room, including double thermostats, fire extinguisher and smoke alarm. I would hate to learn that my power strips are now a weak point.

That one will be fine, Belkin makes theres strictly for sensitive electronics. And as long as it was 200 joules or higher your fine.

Not all companies list the delay time, have to look that up or call them directly

My thoughts are certainly with this family.

Wishing a speedy and healthy recovery for the home and health.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

Using the tape is better over the plastic covers yes, But clips and solder 2 different methods of wiring up.

Clips being they over time can get loose and cause problems. When Solder is loose you lose connection and no heat.

As long as you check the clips often making sure their not wiggling on the flexwatt and insulate with electrical tape you should be fine.

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Ok cool, you mean put elec. tape over plastic clips or take off the clips and just put tape over the metal clips? I may just solder them bc that doesnt look too hard. Plus i only have 1 homemade rack right now so checking them often isnt a big deal for me.

First I would like to give my condolences to the Whitmers.

Second it is a good thing some of you are not reporters. It clearly stats that he received burns from trying to rescue animals, not from trying to escape.

Third... Do you guys have inside info on how the fire started? People going on a tangent about heat tape, clips, and solder. A bunch of accusations with NO facts. How do you know it was from heat tape? How do you know they used clips? How were those clips attached? I think people are quick to blame the clips without knowledge as to how they were attached. Was the special crimper used, or just some pliers? All of the unknowns, but yet everyone talk like they knew exactly what happened.

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Originally Posted by AGoldReptiles

Third... Do you guys have inside info on how the fire started? People going on a tangent about heat tape, clips, and solder. A bunch of accusations with NO facts. How do you know it was from heat tape? How do you know they used clips? How were those clips attached? I think people are quick to blame the clips without knowledge as to how they were attached. Was the special crimper used, or just some pliers? All of the unknowns, but yet everyone talk like they knew exactly what happened.

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I don't think anyone said how the fire started. It is common for snake owners to have flexwatt, clips, power strips, thermostats and all of those can fail and cause fires. The thread did take a tangent discussing how to improve safety and I think that is a good thing. There have been several fires related to reptile facilities and anytime we can have a discussion on how to improve safety, it is a good thing. Hopefully, someone who reads this thread will learn something that just may prevent a fire in their collection.

I'm just sorry the discussion had to come up in such a tragic thread. The Whitmers are in my thoughts and prayers. Also, I don't think anyone here said that they did anything wrong.

Flexwatt is well know to have caused fires in the past. I have no idea about the cause of this tragedy but it has opened (again sadly) concern for our own set ups.

Tragedies can prevent future tragedies. so i dont think it should be an issue that people debate or discuss things that we know can start fires in our snake rooms. No we dont know what started this fire but the most common culprit would be electrical so whats the issue with pointing out the usual suspects?

This has always been my only fear in keeping these animals . I check EVERYTHING every weekend and still feel im not doing enough. Such a horrible tragedy. I could not imagine loosing my animals and my home.

My heart goes out to Grant and his family :(

If you are going to do your own wiring with solder, one thing to look out for with power cords you're cutting up are chinese counterfeit power cords.

Over the last few years with copper prices being as high as they have been the Chinese have been copper coating steel in making power cords. You can tell if you have this because the color won't be quite right & it won't oxidate the way copper wire normally does, but more importantly the resistance of the wire will be off the chart for what it should be. That means they'll run hotter and be a bigger fire hazard, and may also pose voltage drop problems. They're even faking UL labels on some of their junk that they send over here. If you're cutting an ac cord off an old electrical device you're throwing out [I save every ac cord that I see heading to the garbage] its not something to worry about since this is a new problem that hasn't gotten a lot of press.