Elvis and our housefire.....

[Tonytank]

Well, the poor little guys saga continues....well now the poor big guys I guess

About five am this morning our house caught on fire....faulty wiring near the dining room...it was chaos...long long story short because I am drained.....while the firefighters were there we wrapped elvis' habitat in warm towels(they had to cut the power and open every window to vent the smoke, letting 15 degree temps in his room) when we were told to evacuate we loaded him and our other pets up in our vehicles and went to the in laws about an hour away. House wise we are all fine, every person and critter got out safely, the fire was maintained and dealt with in the ceiling above our dining room. Our dining room is destroyed with no ceiling to speak of, however, no damage to any other part of our house.....even elvis' room is perfectly fine, not even smoke damage. Insurance company has been great and have already rewired our house with the electric back on tomorrow and rebuilding and cleanup to follow...probably two weeks time

I was worried about the little guy....lack of sleep and being so cold.....he has been pretty stressed today, but he took a nap, one where I turned off his lights and he was so tired nothing else bothered him....then when he woke up, he got warm and finally he was enticed by a wax worm I offered him and it got his stomach in gear, as he ate veggies, worms and a couple crickets from my hands.....hes sleeping peacefully now.....thank god

we are extremely lucky, please everyone check ur fire detectors, check your wiring if you live in older houses......the firefighters told us we were ten minutes away from losing everything.....houses can be repaired....

T

 

[ChiefsDaddy]

Wow. You and Elvis are so lucky that it wasn't worse. I'm glad the little guy is doing well.

 

[BonesMommy1011]

Thank god you guys are okay. If you need anything let us know. We will try to help

 

[Esther19]

Wow. What an awful thing to have to deal with. I'm so glad to hear everyone is okay.

 

[bltkpo]

I will admit, this is one of my greatest fears. I am glad you, and your family are alright! We live in a small suite, so I always mention to Kyle what we would do in case of a fire. Bindy is just around the corner from our bed room, but in our small space, it wouldn't take long for everything to go up.

Take care, and I hope you are back home soon!

 

[ShannyBeard]

10 minutes away from losing everything....!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: Holy cow. That gives me the chills.

Years ago my best friend woke up to their house being completely on fire and she was barely able to get her twin 5 year old boys out in time. The cat and the rabbits didn't make it.

Yesterday I had my own chilling experience. Monday night I was cleaning poo and covering Scarlet with her fuzzy blankie and I spaced and took her basking light off the top of the viv and placed it on the floor. I never put it back on the top of her viv. Her lights are on timers and came on at 6:00am. I went in the room at 6:15am to see if they were awake yet and opened the door to the smell of burning plastic. :shock: The carpet had melted under the light to a dark, black color and when I picked up the light there was a wisp of smoke. I am so upset with my irresponsibility. What if it would have caught fire while I was in the shower? :shock: I still get freaked out when I think of how stupid and careless that was.

I am glad you guys are okay. You really can't explain to poor Elvis why he isn't where he is supposed to be and why things are different, and that's hard. I guess he is just having a little beardie adventure.

Take care of yourselves.

 

[SilverMoon]

Yesterday I had my own chilling experience. Monday night I was cleaning poo and covering Scarlet with her fuzzy blankie and I spaced and took her basking light off the top of the viv and placed it on the floor. I never put it back on the top of her viv. Her lights are on timers and came on at 6:00am. I went in the room at 6:15am to see if they were awake yet and opened the door to the smell of burning plastic. :shock: The carpet had melted under the light to a dark, black color and when I picked up the light there was a wisp of smoke. I am so upset with my irresponsibility. What if it would have caught fire while I was in the shower? :shock: I still get freaked out when I think of how stupid and careless that was.

You and me both! I have the typical mess top for my 40 gallon tank, I slid it open to one side to get my beardie out because she was freaking out, running wildly and slamming against the glass. I calmed her down and put her back in. As I went to sit on the couch I was like "what the hell is that burning smell?!" I went back over and after sniffing around, then seeing smoke come from my basking bulb I found the problem. Earlier in the day I had slid the cage top over to take her out and feed her, in that time the basking bulb was sitting on top of the black plastic trim of the tank. The plastic had melted and stuck to the mesh, staying under the basking bulb. It started smoking and had I not realized it, I'm pretty sure it would have caught fire in a few minutes. I turned the bulb off and moved it right away, melted plastic was even on the bulb..I couldn't believe how stupid I was for letting that happen, what if I had left the house? took a nap? shower? OMG I'm still kicking myself. Anyway I got a larger fixture for my basking bulb so it isn't sitting as close to the mesh as it was, and I will forever be conscious of where the lights are when I open the tank.

 

[ShannyBeard]

You and me both! I have the typical mess top for my 40 gallon tank, I slid it open to one side to get my beardie out because she was freaking out, running wildly and slamming against the glass. I calmed her down and put her back in. As I went to sit on the couch I was like "what the hell is that burning smell?!" I went back over and after sniffing around, then seeing smoke come from my basking bulb I found the problem. Earlier in the day I had slid the cage top over to take her out and feed her, in that time the basking bulb was sitting on top of the black plastic trim of the tank. The plastic had melted and stuck to the mesh, staying under the basking bulb. It started smoking and had I not realized it, I'm pretty sure it would have caught fire in a few minutes. I turned the bulb off and moved it right away, melted plastic was even on the bulb..I couldn't believe how stupid I was for letting that happen, what if I had left the house? took a nap? shower? OMG I'm still kicking myself. Anyway I got a larger fixture for my basking bulb so it isn't sitting as close to the mesh as it was, and I will forever be conscious of where the lights are when I open the tank.

!!! Mine was a slide-lid viv also! Grrr I don't like that viv at all. I'd much rather have one where the whole top lifted off, like the other vivs we have. So we can both blame the viv, right? :lol: :lol: I have been the queen of melting the plastic edges with the light, even with my gecko's heat lamp. My husband can't figure out how I can make that same mistake so many times. :x :lol:

 

[pyffersnpaws]

I'm so glad that there wasn't as much damage to your home as there could have been, but you are absolutely right, it can be repaired, and the most important thing is that all of your family, two and four legged made it out safely and have a place you can stay till your house is situated.

 

[SilverMoon]

!!! Mine was a slide-lid viv also! Grrr I don't like that viv at all. I'd much rather have one where the whole top lifted off, like the other vivs we have. So we can both blame the viv, right? :lol: :lol: I have been the queen of melting the plastic edges with the light, even with my gecko's heat lamp. My husband can't figure out how I can make that same mistake so many times. :x :lol:

Yeah the kind of viv we have is annoying, but it'll have to do since our budget is tight. Lol I'm sure I'll do it again but I'm trying to be as careful as possible.

 

[ShannyBeard]

Yeah the kind of viv we have is annoying, but it'll have to do since our budget is tight. Lol I'm sure I'll do it again but I'm trying to be as careful as possible.

Well, if you do it again we can let my husband yell at you a little bit and see if that keeps you in line.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[SilverMoon]

Yeah the kind of viv we have is annoying, but it'll have to do since our budget is tight. Lol I'm sure I'll do it again but I'm trying to be as careful as possible.

Well, if you do it again we can let my husband yell at you a little bit and see if that keeps you in line.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

lol all I can say to him is good luck

 

[ShannyBeard]

Yeah the kind of viv we have is annoying, but it'll have to do since our budget is tight. Lol I'm sure I'll do it again but I'm trying to be as careful as possible.

Well, if you do it again we can let my husband yell at you a little bit and see if that keeps you in line.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

lol all I can say to him is good luck

He caught me trying to melt the edge of the anole viv today. :silent: It's just been one of those weeks for me...

 

[SilverMoon]

Yeah the kind of viv we have is annoying, but it'll have to do since our budget is tight. Lol I'm sure I'll do it again but I'm trying to be as careful as possible.

Well, if you do it again we can let my husband yell at you a little bit and see if that keeps you in line.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

lol all I can say to him is good luck

He caught me trying to melt the edge of the anole viv today. :silent: It's just been one of those weeks for me...

LOL

 

[Goonie]

What a scary experience, for you and everyone in the house, but thank goodness the fire was contained to just the dining room and no more damage elsewhere.
I'm sure Elvis was very confused as to why he's no longer in his house, but as long as his slaves are right along with him in the strange house, he'll be just fine.
Good luck with rebuilding the dining room and getting everyone back in the house.