Hi, I thought I would pass along some information that I learned the "hard way". We had a house fire last week and our house is a total loss. I had an extensive video collection (wife says I'm a hoarder in denial), which was mostly uncataloged vhs tapes. I lost alot of my collection and it can not be replaced. I had most of my collection in our house. The firemen said that the fumes in the house were toxic because of the plastic etc that vhs tapes are made of. Lucky the fire happened after we left the house for school and work. Who knows what would have happened if the fire had been while we were a sleep. I would hate to know that my vhs collection contributed to the death of one of my children or my wife. The firemen also stated that any wooden furniture etc in the house would absorb the smoke and would not be of any use in the future. So even if furniture only received smoke damage, it is still not of use because of the fumes it was in. They stated that we should not put anything in a new house that was in our house that burned. So if I acquire any new vhs tapes or am able to salvage any that I have, I will not be storing them in the house. My wife also says they will not be in the house. I would say that the same above would probably be also true for vinyl lps (also had alot of those) as well. I just wanted others to be aware of what type of situation could occur. Thanks Stoogedog

I'm sorry you had to go through that, but luckily everyone is OK.

my mom had a dryer catch fire in her house years ago - there weren't even really any flames, but the smoke got into everything in the house, had to repaint everything and could not get the smell out of a lot of items.

oh my gosh, sorry to hear about that. Thankfully you guys are safe.

I'm happy to hear that you and your family are ok.

And thank you for the heads-up about the vhs tapes. I have quite a collection and will be moving them over the weekend.

I'm so sorry to hear about that. Glad you all are alright. Looks like I'll be converting VHS tapes soon. Additionally jeffcool has been doing that in an endless number of threads, bumping up old ones even. Cut it out.

I'd rather go down in flames than part with my album and tape collection. No way I'd get rid of it. I'd say adios to my funny little honey before I removed my collection.:wave:

And what are DVDs mostly stored in? (As well as made of) -

PLASTIC!:rolleyes:

So guess what happens if they catch on fire? :lol:

And what does that have to do with the price of beans? :rolleyes: Whoever said DVDs weren't plastic? So what, I know that. Back now to my point, my statement about sticking by my collection goes for DVDs, comic books, tapes, albums, 45's and it's all quite flammable. I never said it wasn't. What isn't anyway? Looks like I'll have to walk around the house in my asbestos underwear and wrap all my valuables in asbestos too. Now I'll be safe. :crazy: