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How safe are you from...
a FIRE !?
As
a large Reptile keeper one of my primary concerns has always been the
safety of my family.
I have kept hundreds of Boa Constrictors and produced thousands of babies
but my greatest concern has always been the danger of fire. For this
reason I have always taken all the special safety precautions I knew
how to take to ensure that my family has always been safe. There are
two primary things you can do to ensure the safety of your family and
your herps. 1. Avoid flammable materials as much as possible. 2. Utilize
heating sources that get warm enough but not TOO warm. Let me elaborate.
First thing: All of our cages and racks are built from a PVC type plastic.
PVC is "self extinguishing". Self-Extinguishing!
This means when you attempt to burn one of my cages or racks
the material itself releases a gas that extinguishes the flame preventing
the material from self-consuming. I have personally taken a torch to
my plastic and burned it for a full minute. As soon as the torch is
removed the plastic material is extinguished and ceases burning! That
is correct. Our cages and racks can't burn without an external fuel
source. So when we install heat "inside" a cage or rack, since
it is fully encased in the plastic, the heater can't possibly start
the cage or rack on fire. This is why we ensure that at no time can
any of our heat sources come into direct contact with anything other
that our "self extinguishing" PVC. If a sheet of Flexwatt
somehow did get hot enough to start on fire that fire would go out for
two reasons. 1. Since it is fully encased it can't get any oxygen which
is needed to feed a fire thus it would go out. 2. The plastic material
itself if burned will release the gas that will extinguish the flame.
Being a family man it's nice to have peace of mind
knowing that our cage plastic is "self extinguishing".
Obviously any wood products can and will burn. Polyurethane, Polystyrene,
ABS, Acrylics, Acetals, Cellulose Acetate, Cellulose Acetate Butyrate,
Cellulose Propionate,Cellulose Nitrate, Polyester and most other plastics
are flammable as well if they have not been specially formulated not
to be so. Many of these plastics can be purchased with an additive that
makes that plastic "self extinguishing" like PVC. We do not
know if any other cage manufacturers use the "self extinguishing"
type of materials or not. Before making your next cage purchase you
may want to ask if the materials used in the cages/racks you are considering
are "self extinguishing". When you make your next purchase
you might want to consider how important the fire risk is to you and
your family and can your supplier ensure that their cage materials
will not burn.
Secondly: I use low wattage Flexwatt to avoid unnecessary
hot spots. The last thing anyone needs is a fire. I have
always used lower wattage Flexwatt that has not been readily available
to the Herp community. I had been purchasing this from a local distributor
and now I get it directly from the manufacturer. The Flexwatt I had
used primarily was 11" wide and only 10 watts per foot. This is
half the wattage of the readily available 11" Flexwatt. I used
a larger warm spot rather than a small "hot" spot to heat
my Reptiles. A hot spot that is 95 degrees is really too warm for most
herps to rest on. A larger warm spot of 88 degrees will be readily utilized
by most herps when warming is desired. So my general philosophy has
always been larger warm spots vs. a smaller "hot" spot that
many other Herpers use. This is also a safety advantage. Lower temps
equal a reduced chance of fire. We build and configure caging to heat
adequately in a normal environment. We do not build caging that is intended
to be used in a 60-degree environment that would be unreasonable to
expect to be kept adequately warm. If we did and that same housing was
moved to a normal room say in the summer time there could be serious
problems. If an air conditioner fails and no thermostat is used we don't
want you or your Reptiles to be in danger. Thermostats and rheostats
can fail as well. I have had two brands of "Herp" thermostats
fail over the years. I have also had a few rheostats stick in the wide
open position but at no time were my Reptiles is danger of death because
I do not use the higher wattage heaters when the lower wattage does
the same job more effectively. They were unhappy and uncomfortable but
fine. This is why we use the thermostat we do. It
is the absolute best most reliable thermostat we know of period.
I hope after looking over the site it is obvious that we are trying
to do much more than just blow cages and racks out the door. We
want to help you be as successful with your critters as we have been.
If you have a situation and need assistance, as a Boaphile
Plastics customer you can count on us to help with consulting and coaching
you to achieve what you need in your Herp housing.
Bottom
line your safety is our number one concern and the well being of your
herps is a close second. You can count on us to have these things at
the forefront of everything we do every day.
Thank you,
Jeff Ronne / The Boaphile
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