fire safety

[Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

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