small fire in tortoise room, need info for cleaning ASAP! Please!

[shelloise]

So this afternoon I was having family over for a celebration, went into the small spare bdrm/tortoise room and thought I had turned off the 3 CHEs that were there on each tank. A little while later, I went to go back in, there was smoke and a che was burning through a cardboard box and the keyboard in it was starting to catch fire. My husband grabbed it and took it outside and I grabbed cardboard boxes , put the 3 torts in them and put them in a different room./ They look fine, are eating etc.
Now, the smell is horrendouse, burning plastic I guess from the keyboard, plus smoke. We had opened the windows and put a fan there to get rid of the smoke. My computer is in here to , it reeks in here.
I know I have to dump out all the substrate, fake plants, logs, except a couple of things I can wash...
what I need help with is what should I use to clean the aquarium glasses and also the wood on the habitat that one is in?
I still feel shaken up about it, I could have had it a lot worse. would Windex, or vinegar and water or Lysol or Fantastic cleaner?r or ? work? I can't run out to get other cleaners so that's my list of what I have.

 

[wellington]

So glad everyone is okay. Sorry for the fire though. I would start with the vinegar and water mixture and see if that works. If not, go on to the next product you have on hand. Tomorrow, if you can go out and get some frebreze, that should help a lot with the smell, if it still smells by then.

 

[shelloise]

Thanks... what do you think the vinager/water ratio should be? I have febreeze but I was worrying that it would drift to the substrate and cause a problem for them.
The one enclosure is a really nice wood one someone built, it is more like a piece of furniture, like a desk so don';t want to take off the finish? would windex or vinager take off the finish?

 

[immayo]

Windex has vinegar in it so it may take of the finish (I know it does on cars). They do make glass cleaners that are vinegar free though, so those would prob be the best bet! Good luck! Glad to hear your little guys are alright!

 

[thelub]

Hey, a subject I'm very familiar with!

Vinegar should safe for the animals and will greatly help getting the smoke residue off the glass and platics. You don't need to use a lot of vinegar, typically a 1:4 vinegar/water ratio works. If you have carpet in the room, you can dust the carpet with baking soda, let it sit for 8-12hrs and vacuum it up and that will help take the smell out (it worked in my car when I ran over a skunk).

As for the rest of the room and everything in it you're kind of out of luck. I used to work for a company that did fire damage restoration work and even with small fires, EVERYTHING in the house has to be thoroughly cleaned. There are specialty dry "chem" sponges (available at commercial cleaning supply stores) that are used to wipe down walls and other flat surfaces that help clean off the burn residue, but usually you have to repaint with a sealer for the smell to really go away. Luckily if it was a small enough fire (or just a smolder, no real flames) it will probably go away with time (lots of time unfortunately). To help this, wash EVERYTHING that was in the room. A computer might be harder to get the smell out of since it will be very difficult to wash it. You could start with washing the case (inside and out) and monitor and that will help with the smell. Just make sure you don't use too much water or you'll fry the electronics.

best of luck!

 

[kimber_lee_314]

A very similar thing happened to me - and the smell was awful. I washed out the tubs with vinegar and let them dry outside. Then I replaced the substrate. Unfortunately the room still smelled awful. I did the same thing with the room - mopped with vinegar, cleaned the blinds with vinegar, and wiped down the walls. It helped, but honestly, it just took time for the smell to dissipate. So glad everyone was safe! I know how scary that can be!

 

[Tortoise]

Sorry to hear about the fire, could have been much worse and lucky you were home.

I would use a vinegar water mix in a sprayer as an air freshener too.(I use neat vinegar in spray bottles to clean surfaces in house) Also leave a few boxes of baking soda opened in the room to absorb odours.

Glad you are all ok anyway

 

[Tom]

All you need is an ozone generator. Takes the smell out of everything. Run it in that room shut the doors for a couple of hours and you'll be good to go.

 

[shelloise]

I'll have to google that, is it same as an air purifier? So I ran out and found a natural cleaner that I could use on wood, walls etc. I did everything else with vinegar. I have a few things in the room to do yet but I broke a rib a couple of weeks ago and that's it for me for the night.

 

[Tom]

It is a form of air purifier. They use it in flood cases to kill the mold, mildew and their accompanying smells. Works great for smoke too, and porcupine smells in your van, and dog puke, puppy poop, monitor lizard/tegu feces, bearded dragon smells, unwelcome cigarette smoke residue (blechhhh), etc...

 

[Moozillion]

Well, I'm confused, again (a common state of mind for me!) I was excited to hear about using an ozone generator to removed bad smells so I found a Wikipedia article on ozone and that's what's got me confused. According to the article:

"Ozone is a powerful oxidant and has many industrial and consumer applications related to oxidation. This same high oxidizing potential, however, causes ozone to damage respiratory tissues in animals, and also tissues in plants, above concentrations of about 100 parts per billion. This makes ozone a potent respiratory hazard and pollutant near ground level. Exposure produces headaches, burning eyes and irritation to the respiratory passages. Even low concentrations of ozone in air are very destructive to organic materials such as latex, plastics and animal lung tissue."

And apparently ozone is a "key component" of smog, and the amount of ozone in the atmosphere is one of the things that is measured in determining air pollution health alerts. (Both my hubby and I have asthma, so we keep an eye on the Air Quality Alerts).

This makes it sound like an ozone generator is not a very good idea, or am I mistaken?

 

[yagyujubei]

Ozone generators are a favorite of "home growers". Evidently they eliminate the telltale odors from the grow room.
How did the CHE come in contact with combustables? Was it set there thinking it was off, or fall?

 

[Neal]

And apparently ozone is a "key component" of smog, and the amount of ozone in the atmosphere is one of the things that is measured in determining air pollution health alerts. (Both my hubby and I have asthma, so we keep an eye on the Air Quality Alerts).

I've used an ozone generator a couple of times, it works great! But even in a small room, I don't think you want to be in the house at all when it's running...I guess it depends on the size and capacity of the machine. I'm not familiar with different models and varieties, but the one we have used is a heavy duty model, or so we were told. We've always left the house and let it run over night, then we'd go back to the house the next day. Our oldest daughter has asthma and we've never had any issues doing it this way.

 

[Moozillion]

I've used an ozone generator a couple of times, it works great! But even in a small room, I don't think you want to be in the house at all when it's running...I guess it depends on the size and capacity of the machine. I'm not familiar with different models and varieties, but the one we have used is a heavy duty model, or so we were told. We've always left the house and let it run over night, then we'd go back to the house the next day. Our oldest daughter has asthma and we've never had any issues doing it this way.

Good to know! Thanks!

 

[Tom]

I've seen the same Internet stuff, but like Neal, my family has never experienced any of those listed issues. To be safe we don't use it when we are in the house.

I would remove all the animals from the room and run the thing full blast for a few hours. It's a one time treatment thing. It does not have to run constantly with the animals in the room.

 

[thelub]

Ozone is created naturally by lightning strikes. Its part of the smell in the air after a good strong thunderstorm. Its OK in small quantities and the in-home ozone generators don't generate enough ozone to be harmful unless it was in a tightly sealed room for an extended amount of time. I used to have one running in a house all the time and didn't experience any side affects.

 

[Yvonne G]

My daughter-in-law is very allergic and they run one of those home ozone air cleaners 24/7 inside their house. Have for years.

 

[shelloise]

I had turned off the CHEs, one I thought was off as it didn't have het hardly. Anyway, I set it on a box on the floorbecause I was going to sweep and needed the wores out of the way. It caught fire, but luckily was ok So now I have the cords on a power bar so they all turn off it I am wanting that.I don't like using ches as it is, so am not going to replace it. I can use a bulb like I did before.

Ozone generators are a favorite of "home growers". Evidently they eliminate the telltale odors from the grow room.
How did the CHE come in contact with combustables? Was it set there thinking it was off, or fall?

---

A very similar thing happened to me - and the smell was awful. I washed out the tubs with vinegar and let them dry outside. Then I replaced the substrate. Unfortunately the room still smelled awful. I did the same thing with the room - mopped with vinegar, cleaned the blinds with vinegar, and wiped down the walls. It helped, but honestly, it just took time for the smell to dissipate. So glad everyone was safe! I know how scary that can be!

yes,, scary is the right word! Today I am doing the walls, then I am down. Most of the smell is gone but is still hanging on a bit. Unfortunately I can't open the windows in here as it is freezing out.The animals are fine, they have clean tanks and new substrate etc, I put all their stuff thru the dishwasher and everything is good to go.