Fire, flood or other dangers? Did you prepare?

Some time ago one of my colleagues had a shortcut in an extension wire and half of her house burned down. It was very sad. She didn’t have any fire alarms in the house or any type of preparation in case of fire. Just like many people she didn’t think it would happen to her. She and her family only had time to run for their life and couldn’t rescue anything. Just a few weeks ago I had a problem in my main electric system ( in believe you call it a fuse box in English) . I was just in time because parts if it already turned brown from the dangling wire. If not for our qaurentine I might have not even noticed something was strange. Just few days after a house in our neigbourhood caught fire. They had to throw the dog out of the window from the first floor. Poor animal broke two of his legs but they did survive.

It really made me scared because I’ll really go crazy if something happened to our house, not only for myself and my son but how am I ever going to rescue all my animals? I already had some things prepared but now I got a little crazy and started preparing for the worst like fire alarm in every room possible, bought fire blankets and fire extinguishers and even an emergency ladder so we can get out from the top floor. There are a pile of pillow cases in the snake rooms so I can throw them in and carry them ect. Even called an electrician to fix extra electrical sockets so I almost don’t have to use extention wires in the snake room anymore, because they are a know cause for many fires.

Now I was just wondering, did anyone of you ever had an experience with fire or flood or some other danger to you and your animals? How did you handle it? And did anyone of you prepare for that and if yes, what did you do?

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Had both fire and flood. The flood drown all the animals in the lower racks spaces. Got over 4 feet of water in lower half of my old house. I moved to a new space where flooding is not an issue.
Had a fire many years ago. Only had a few boas so I was able to grab them and throw them into bags and run out. Now we have fire extinguishers and a hose so hopefully we’ll be able to contain the fire or put it out before it becomes too big.

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@lindasark
So im a big NERD when it comes to this stuff… the biggest piece of advise I can give you you is to SAVE MONEY. When it comes to the specific reptiles wellbeing, we know that the two biggest things that can be effected is HEAT and FOOD… I personally keep a stock pile of food (live, froze, and canned) for my cold blooded babies. I also keep a Costco size box of HOTHANDS for an Emergency. But honestly, if you can invest in a generator, that will give you the biggest piece of mind for power outages. When it come to fire or floods, if that kind of natural disaster is in your wheel house, you gotta think long term. Being able to grab and go is key (in the event that you’re home and can take your critters with you). Keeping temporary emergency tubs/ food is all you can really do. Then head for a hotel where you can plug in some heat emitters or UTH pads and pray for the best… just some food for thought! :hugs:

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I have a generator. It’s capable of running the whole building at full power for 5 days if need be.

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Oh I’m sorry. It must be terrible to see so many animals lost. I’m so happy I’m on the east side of the Netherlands so we are seriously above sea level and most of our snakes are in the top floor. Thank God that at least the fire didn’t kill any of them, even though fire is always terrible in a house.

My fire extinguisher arrived today. It’s bigger then expected so it must be enough for a serious fire and I chose the foam one that is not harmfull for animals or doesn’t cost shortcut in case it was in an extensionwire. hope I can stop the fire before it get’s tp big.

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Good advice to set some money aside in case of, also for emergency vet bills. I indeed have a seperate freezer full of rat’s and mice. Hothands is also a good advise. I’m happy I have a friend where I can bring most of my snakes in case of emergency and my mother is now so used to them that I can also house them there. Generators are not something needed here. I live in the middle of a city and power outages here in the Netherlands mostly only take half an hour and never take longer than a few hours in the worst case, but good advice if it’s a thing where you live.

It’s nice to hear how other people think about this. When I told a friend about it he called me a little dramatic, like thinking to much about the worst. But I prefer to prepare so it doesn’t have to be dramatic when something happens, and it doesn’t get to the worst.

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An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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Back in college, a friend of a roommate ran a small biz maintaining fish tanks for professional offices, restaurants, and the like. His apartment was wall to wall tanks. Mostly fish, but quite a menagerie too. One Feb we had an ice storm. He lost power. And heat.

We spent that day shuttling animals all over mid-Michigan to homes he had prepared for such an event. Friends, family. Including our own. Before the day was over, we relocated almost five hundred animals!

As I recall, he lost a few larger SW fish, but all the birds, herps, and mammals survived. He had a plan, and it worked. Exciting day!

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Hey everyone,
I was doing some research on the Derecho (I’m a weather nerd) that’s occurred last week and hit Iowa very hard. I live in a pretty storm prone area myself and got to thinking what everyone’s Weather plans are?

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I live in the south near the gulf, so hurricanes are a very real possibility. In the event I lose power during a hurricane, my AC will go out along with all my tank/rack heat, and my apartment will be an ambient 85-95 degrees, so the snakes will be fine (I however will be miserable). I have a bunch of shoe boxes saved, so if I have to evacuate they can be packed up and go with me.

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That’s a similar thing to what I have, I have a big tote they can be put in for easier evacuation and I have a heat blanket for a heat source should something happen and I’m able to go to a place that has power.

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Ooh, a heat blanket is a great idea! I might grab one in case of an emergency in cooler weather

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And the best thing about them is that they have an internal thermostat so you know they won’t exceed a temp higher than what you set it at.

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I like @chesterhf I where hurricanes are a real thing. (PSL, Florida) so Kai, my boa would be fine without a heat for a little bit. But because of my own personal chronic health issues. I need access to refrigerated medications, so if the storm is bad enough to lose power for a week or so I would have to evacuate from the state. So in preparation for that I have a clear Tupperware bin with the extra thermostat and heat mat that he could stay in, also with substrate and I would probably take one frozen feeder with me, plus a frozen feeder that he would be eat before I leave.

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I feel you, I have conditions that I can’t be in idle heat. I lived in Florida during the 2003-2004 Hurricane outbreak. We were without power for two weeks during Hurricane Charlie. I would have trouble breathing and react badly to the heat. If the power were to go out, I would have to go somewhere with power.

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Thanks it is awesome to have people that get that…

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I’m up in MN where winter can cause massive power outages where I live. For that reason I bought a small generator where if I need to I can hook up my racks and enclosures for the heat my snakes would need. I also have some heat pads that don’t require electricity for some extra security if needed.
For tornadoes, luckily I have a basement(almost all homes in MN have basements) that I keep a large heavy duty tote bolted to the floor. I can fit some heat pads in there and all my snakes tubs if needed.
Thankfully I haven’t had to use either yet.

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Yes I wish I had a basement so bad! As far as a generator goes, I think investing in one is a good idea, it’s something I thought about a few years ago, but since this past winter was so mild, i let go of the thought. Thanks for bringing it back up to me. What kind do you use?

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I use a Dewalt 8,000 watt gasoline powered generator. I picked mine up from Home Depot for around 1k on sale.
They definitely are a nice piece of equipment to have on hand. I’ve ran it a few times just to see how it works and they work well.
I got the idea from a friend of mine who lives up in northern MN, where they lose power frequently. It’s saved his collection a few times, most recently 2 years ago where he was without power for a little over a week.

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You can also find some more affordable brands around 450-700$.

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