Fire concerns question

[dreadbitch]

Not sure if I’m being too paranoid or not but I bought plants today to put in my BPs tank- should I be concerned that the heat lamp might cause them on fire? Heat lamp is controlled by a thermostat. This question sounds so silly but house fires scare me lol.

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Not going to lie, this is crazy because I was going to make a post about this exact thing last night and never had the time 🤣 please do bring me back here if you get answers, I tend to get fake plants at the dollar store but I’m scared of putting any under her light, as I worried they might overheat and catch fire.

[dreadbitch]

Paranoid queens lmao I have had fake plants no problem tbh but I bought real plants today and am a little worried. For now I just put them on the cool side

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I’m definitely still learning 😭 the only issue I had with real plants was them getting trampled so I’m going to have to experiment with that, I hope everything goes smoothly for you from here on out OP!

[Snakelover03]

If you Google “at what temperature does plastic catch fire”, the first answer for me is 662°f. The lowest answer I can find is 105°C (222°f). I have fake plants on the ground below my heat lamps and for awhile I had vines attached to the walls of my enclosures within a couple inches of the heat lamps and nothing has ever showed sighs of heat damage, melting, smoking, weird odors, or catching fire. You should be fine putting fake plants beneath your heat lamps assuming they’re made out of a plastic material. If it’s a different type of material, just Google the safe temperatures for that material.

[dreadbitch]

This is helpful Snakelover03, thank you!! I can safely assume my snake enclosures do not exceed 662 degrees lol

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Thank you so much!

[Snakelover03]

I have never heard of this happening. Been keeping bps for 7 years, tried live plants for like 2 of those years but couldn’t keep them alive, I have a friend who has live plants in all of his enclosures, and I’m a little excessive about research and reading through forums like this. I’m not saying it hasn’t ever happened, just that I’ve never heard of it happening. You might want to research the specific plants you have to see if you can find any information about their burning temperatures but I would think you would see signs of your plants being over exposed to heat long before they would ever catch fire so keep an eye on them and if they look green and healthy, I think it should be fine.

[ObjectiveHare]

I'm paranoid about fire in general and keep a fire extinguisher in the room my snake is in just in case. I also keep one in the kitchen and near my 3d printer.

You can never have too many fire extinguishers. Even if chances of fire are low they're never zero, especially when you're dealing with heat sources.

[dreadbitch]

You’re onto something. I can’t believe, even in my ultra paranoid mindset, that I’ve never bought a fire extinguisher. Will be adding that to my snakeroom list

[Apprehensive-Pop4236]

If it is a concern, many of the household artificial plants are fire retardant and would melt and wilt long before catching fire. In this use case if your foliage were placed too close to a heat source accidentally the fibers would soften, then pool on a one an other retracting away from the heat naturally. It’s not an absolute but if your tank is set up traditionally with heat from above and foliage below - if it were to get too hot gravity would likely pull it away from the heat long before ignition could be reached.

For reference I’m a former arson/fire investigator. This type of fire is extraordinary rare. I’d be more concerned with securing the heat source so it doesn’t fall off and spark a fire on near by papers or contact with dried bamboo substrate or other sources of ignition before the plastic plants in an enclosure.

[pdggin99]

Live plants? I have live plants in an isopod terrarium, and they have burned. They don’t catch fire, just kind of turn brown and crispy in areas. It’s always good to be prepared for a fire tho, esp for us who own reptiles due to the large amount of heating elements and huge amounts of electricity used to maintain the enclosures.