Re: Safety note: was Differences between "bad" streamers and "good" streamers

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Ed Phillips by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net>

Tesla list wrote:
 >
 > Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com>

 > That's some pretty doggoned impressive looking streamers!
 > Are they just hitting a drywalled ceiling? One note of safety
 > you may need to consider is a possible fire hazard. Yours
 > truly was doing just that inside a vacant room of the house
 > that I was residing in at the time several years ago and I
 > started noticing a smell of something burning. I kept notic-
 > ing it and being a firefighter by profession, I decided to
 > find out where the "smell" was coming from. I looked out-
 > side of the house and discovered that there was a little bit
 > of smoke oozing out from underneath the cornice. I quickly
 > ran up into the attic and found that the cellulose insulation
 > directly above where I was firing the coil (with its beautiful,
 > bright streamers hitting the ceiling with reckless abandon)
 > had ignited into a smoky, smoldering fire. I quickly grabbed
 > a pot full of water and poured it liberally onto the smoldering
 > insulation. Left an ugly water mark on the ceiling but at least
 > the house was still standing!
 >
 > Bottom line, most of us are very careful about the electrocu-
 > tion hazards of our hobby, as well we should be, but I think
 > sometimes we tend to forget the fire hazard aspect of it. And
 > streamers, especially those from powerful coils, can start a
 > small smoldering fire in textile or wooden products that we
 > may not even notice until it's too late. If I had just left the
 > house right after playing with the coil before I had noticed
 > the smell of smoke, I may very well have come home to a
 > pile of ashes! I'm in no way trying to take a pot-shot at Mark
 > and I'm sure Mark dosen't take it this way. I'm only trying to
 > make us ALL a little more (fire) safety conscience about our
 > hobby from some first-hand, personal experience.
 >
 > Spark safely,
 > David Rieben

	Seems to me that this is a long-overdue note.  Every time I see
pictures of very impressive pictures of massive streamers striking
ceilings, walls, or electrical equipment like grinders I wonder about
fire and insulation breakdown.

Ed