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Re: fire safety



Hi David,

Just wanted to say thanks for sendng this post. We rarely discuss this
unless something happens. I personally keep an exstinguisher handy and
anyone running a coil should do the same.

Bart

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com
>
> Hi all,
>
> We all obviously know the electrocution hazards in dealing with
> Tesla circuits, but as a professional firefighter in my real job, it
> sometimes seems that we tend to downplay the true fire danger
> involved with this hobby, especially w/ high powered Tesla coils.
> The problem I've noticed in firing my large 10 ft sparker in my
> claustrophobic 12 ft x 20 ft wood frame shop is that sometimes
> I will notice a carbonized spot here and there on the outer wood
> siding of the shop building. I fear this may not be noticable when
> it is actually burned by one of the streamers but slowly smolders
> till the burnt spot appears on the surface. The fire hazard is obvi-
> ous. Fire beneath the outer surface gives firefighters the biggest
> problems with extinguishing structure fires and if all possible sources
> of subsurface smoldering debris are not removed, there will likely
> be a re-kindle some time after the fire dept. has left the fire scene
> (sometimes several hours later!!)
>
> Just wanted to remind everyone of fire safety as well as electri-
> cal safety. I do keep a charged fire extinguisher in my shop to
> quickly extinguish a flash fire, but if a streamer ignites the wood
> internally, it may not be noticed till it breaks out some time later
> and if it continues to burn unchecked it may be too late  to
> extinguish (without calling me!) when it does become noticable
> and gains unlimited access to the O2 of the open air! And I'd do
> good to heed my own advice on this matter, too. Maybe someday
> I can build a nice tall metal building for my coiling,
>
> My professional $.02 worth,
> Be Safe----- David Rieben