House Fire

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Gobi-Wan

Gobi-Wan

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Hello all. Last night my propane grill exploded causing a house fire. Thankfully everyone is ok and the fire was contained to a small portion of the attic and one room. There was smoke throughout the house and the power is shut off. A neighbor allowed me to run an extension cord which I have powering the sump return and one of the gyres and a fan circulating air through the windows. My biggest concern is what damage the smoke may have done and the temperature here in the St. Louis area is going to be in the 90s. What is the best course of action? Trying to get insurance sorted out today and get repairs started. The house wiring runs through the attic so we will not have power until that is all checked out/repaired
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
Sorry to hear about the fire, glad everyone is OK. So I would think that if you have fans going, and your pumps and all running, hopefully your tank wont exceed 84 ish degrees, this is where coral death would start. You may loose some CUC members, the fish for sure will be fine in that temp. Your biggest concern would be your corals. Fans on the waters surface will help alot if you can acquire one.
 
Tidal Gardens
Top Shelf Aquatics
agree w ice on sealed bag ti but throw iff salinity or frozen water bottles to maintain temps. keep everything else going until you get a plan in place more long term until house renovation is completed. glad everyone is ok.
 
Waters said:
I know this is reefing website, but how did the propane tank explode? Always been a concern of mine as my grill sits close to the house also.
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No idea. Technically it didn’t explode, I think the valve burst somehow and it was basically shooting propane flames. After using the grill, i had shut off the burners and completely closed the valve on the propane tank as always. It didn’t explode until about 20 or 30 minutes later… we were finishing dinner. Fire chief couldn’t figure out what happened and confirmed that all the valves were off. The grill was obviously still hot and maybe some burning grease fell through or something? Chief said there wasn’t much in the drip pans
 
Is it possible to set up small life support totes at a friend's house instead of reefing on site a few weeks

You can make 2-3 mini sub reefs to keep things alive simply running on rocks clean water and a few fish and corals in each tote it won't cycle. A bubbler + cheap pre set heater from wal mart

Covered with mesh so no jumpers. Work on lighting later it's not vital first several days.

Offsite reefing is what my mind tells me, then move back in fully once everything works out

I'm so sorry, sick at stomach to read this
 
Nutramar Foods
Gobi-Wan said:
No idea. Technically it didn’t explode, I think the valve burst somehow and it was basically shooting propane flames. After using the grill, i had shut off the burners and completely closed the valve on the propane tank as always. It didn’t explode until about 20 or 30 minutes later… we were finishing dinner. Fire chief couldn’t figure out what happened and confirmed that all the valves were off. The grill was obviously still hot and maybe some burning grease fell through or something? Chief said there wasn’t much in the drip pans
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Wow that is crazy...my grill is an absolute mess with grease everywhere. Time to clean it up I guess.
 
brandon429 said:
Is it possible to set up small life support totes at a friend's house instead of reefing on site a few weeks

You can make 2-3 mini sub reefs to keep things alive simply running on rocks clean water and a few fish and corals in each tote it won't cycle. A bubbler + cheap pre set heater from wal mart

Covered with mesh so no jumpers. Work on lighting later it's not vital first several days.

Offsite reefing is what my mind tells me, then move back in fully once everything works out

I'm so sorry, sick at stomach to read this
Click to expand...
Thanks Brandon. I’m thinking it would be super stressful on the fish to try to get them moved, I have power from the neighbors house, which for now is just circulating the gyre wave maker and the sump return. I’m going to call Corner Reef, the owner always calls me by name there so I’m pretty sure he will try to help, I think my main concern is cooling. I can always power up the lights in a few days if I have to. Maybe he has a chiller I can borrow temporarily or rent and hopefully USAA will reimburse. I can always move the fish if it seems to be getting worse
 
Avast
The only thing I didn't see mentioned that you may want to think about is gas exchange. Fire/smoke would make me concerned about higher than normal levels of CO and CO2 and subsequently the affect on pH. If you aren't monitoring pH I would maybe add a bubbler with air from the outside. My a/c went out for a couple of days and even with all the windows open and inside fans going the pH still tanked. I would just make sure that your window fans are bringing in enough fresh air.
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
maybe hot grease dripped on propane line which still had some gas in it sparking a fireball that then blew the valve off tank and lead to bigger fire?! Crazy.
 
Do you have a place you can move your tank to. I did some renovations to my home early this year and had my lfs move my tank out of my house For a month Wasn’t the cheapest route cost close to a grand but everything survived the moves and I had peace of mind thru it all
 
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