FIRE from HEAT MAT

[ashman07]

Hello, I just though i would share somthing that happened to me last night.
I'll just explain the situaton first. Well a couple of weeks ago my Shingleback cought Nemonia and needed to be seperated from the other lizards so I bought her a little 2ft tank that came with a heat mat. IT WAS SECOND HAND TANK, but the heat mat was only 4 months old. Anyway I set i up with the heatmat on 24 hours a day with the spot light on all day as well as the vet sugested this. Last night I went to sleep and I woke up at 5:00am because I could not breath properly, my throte was very sore and I could hardly see. I went out to get a drink and went back to bed. 5 minutes later I could harly breath and my throte was even worse so I went out to get another drink from the kitchen. When I returned I relised that there was smoke coming from the new tank next to my bed. I turned on the lights and my hole bedroom was full of smoke and I could hardly see. I was strugling to breath so I grabed the snake and the lizard that were in the tank and rushed out. When I went back in my room the tank was on fire badly and had burned through and burnt the carpet. The heat mat was completly desintergrated.

As can be seen by the picture it was hard to see any glowing bark chips or flames.

In the end All is ok apart from the tank. What makes it worse is that last nigh my dad took the battrys out of the smoke alarm as he burnt his tea so it did not go off when the house was practicaly burning down.lol

Just wanted to let people know that this happened to me because of the heat mat and not to trust them.

Thanks

 

[joelypat]

I had heat matts and rocks in my enclosures for the first winter I kept pythons. It gets pretty cold in Bathurst. After i checked how hot they get, in particular the rocks, i decided to turn them off. I remember on the instructions it recommended not to use them directly under heat lamps. I am just wondering if this is the reason ?

 

[Rosemary]

Your best bet with heat mat is to use a thermostat so that it doesnt get that hot that it will start a fire.

 

[FAY]

What brand was it???? I have had problems with Exoterra ones.

 

[ashman07]

i AM NOT SURE WHAT BRAND IT IS BECAUSE IT IS COMPLETELY DESINTERGRATED.

 

[Saz]

I've got a couple of 2ft mats that I wouldn't DARE use without a thermostat as they get the surface temp up to 50 degrees plus in ten minutes!

Glad that no-one was hurt, hope the herps recovered okay.

:0)

 

[FAY]

AM NOT SURE WHAT BRAND IT IS BECAUSE IT IS COMPLETELY DESINTERGRATED

Why are you yelling at me??

 

[ashman07]

lol, SORRY caps lock was on. I did know that capitals where used for yelling. Im not angry lol

 

[Lamu22]

same thing happened to my friend use a thermostat!, it usually states on the box "use with a thermostat" and "have air flow between mat and the bottom of the tank" but obviously you bought it second hand so you didnt have a box.
your lucky you didnt lose anything, hopefully alot of people should learn from this.

LAMU

 

[hugsta]

I think by the small 'i' in front of the writing Fay he accidently hit the caps lock button. Or at least I hope that's what happened.

I hope a lot of people read this and realise just how important it is to have a thermostat hooked up to any heat source, especially if you are unfamiliar with it. Never risk your animals, your life, your house, your family etc etc for the sake of $100. It's not worth it.

Sounds like you were very lucky ashman07, most fire victims die because of smoke inhilations. Glad everything is OK.

 

[krusty]

your lucky thats all that burnt.....you could have lost every thing.......

 

[kel]

how lucky you noticed before it was too late, if i were you id take your dad shopping for a thermostat, theres been some cheaper ones on ebay lately and tell him to NEVER take the batteries out of the smoke alarm

 

[ashman07]

Yes i should. I am not going to use heat mats in the future.

 

[Moreliaman]

Ive had a few problems with those hagen heatmatts , but not nearly burning my house down !! :shock:

Did you put the heatmatt inside the viv & then cover it in bark chips ??

 

[Rennie]

Herpshop has them on special still for $60.
In my opinion those ones are the best (not the most accurate, only + or - 2degrees) because they are wired up and ready to go.

 

[jordo]

Bit of bad luck Ash, lucky you were woken up by the smoke though.
I've never used heat mats before but was thinking of getting some for the geckos - i might just leave them be now.

 

[Rennie]

They work fine for me but I always use thermostats

 

[shiner]

They work fine for me but I always use thermostats

Same here, I think they are great

 

[Scale_Addiction]

hmmm... i wonder if it was a fault on the mat or the fault of the user.

by what you have said, the mat was under the tank and on top of carpet? if thats the case, the tank & substrate with the carpet would have acted as two huge insulators, bringing the temp up to a point where it would melt the matt insulation, possibly exposing the element, the element arking and causing a fire?

i always use matts on an elevated base, so that the under of the matt can breath.

 

[ashman07]

NO, It was in the melemi tank. Not under it.