Aquarium Fire

[Tropical Paradise]

hi all,

Insurance company hired a forensic Electric Engineer to investigate the light. The following quote is his view on the matter:

"Hi Kai-Wei,

It is my opinion that this fire started as a result of an overheated fluorescent ballast. The melting and burning of the plastic end of the aquarium top, downwind of the ballast, supports this theory. Two trails of char from the ballast to the end of the reflector also support this theory. In addition, the top of the transparent plastic barrier appeared more severely affected by the heat than the bottom indicating that the ballast was the source of the intense heat.

There were no indications of any modifications to the fixture; it appeared to be in its original condition.

I X-rayed the ballast but could not find any indication on the x-ray to help me understand what failed in the ballast.

Hope that your new light is safer than the former one.

If it makes you feel any better, failures of this type are quite rare."


The fire originated from a overheated ballast, as evident in the photo. In my personal opinion, I think the overheated ballast may be due to fan's inability to pull in fresh-air. The the right side of the ballast is the dust grill. Perhaps dust grill had collected so much dust, that fresh air was not being pulled out of the fan. Thus, resulting in high-temperature in the enclosure. It then leads to a plastic melt-down, which then results in the fire. Although the actual fire was not big. Had it caught on to the ceiling, the whole house would be burned down quilckly. Thank God that my dad was home. And Thank God that he was alright.

This is what I think happened. What are your thoughts?