hi, i think the title of my last messsage didn't catch people's attention like i thought it should so i'm trying this again.

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

PS: I don't know about dvds, but i would assume they give off toxic fumes as well. PLEASE BE AWARE!!

Stooge, again I'm sorry for your loss and glad that you are safe, but the previous thread got 155 views (so far), so I think the word got around. Additionally, I have a hard time believing that vhs tapes and dvd's are huge threats to causing fires. It sounds like what you are saying is recommeding everyone get rid of their entire collections, and I just don't think that is going to happen with anyone (it isn't happening with me)

hi, i saw the views but i figured there were more people out there that may have not read the thread that may need to read it. i thought there would have been more comments. not the type of comments about feeling sorry for me, etc, but comments about how people store their vhs tape collections etc.

NO i am not saying to get rid of your collection. the vhs tapes didn't start the fire, but once the fire started spreading and engulfed the vhs tapes they started melting and burning. they intensified the flames, heat, smoke and fumes. luckily we were gone from home, but if we had been home, the toxic fumes would have probably killed some or all of my family. i have been able to salvage some of my collection, but i lost close to 2000 vhs tapes, 500 cds and several 100 lp records. the firemen said that all these contributed to the toxic fumes because of the plastic and other materials they were made of. again, i'm not suggesting to get rid of your collection. i will still collect vhs tapes etc, but i will not have the vast majority of my collection stored in my house where my family lives.

I've heard that the ink in dvdrs is toxic (I dont know if that applies to cdrs too), so I'm not surprised that burning them along with whatever else we have in our dwellings would create a toxic gas. You dont want to be putting dvdrs in shredders (some people do).
Terrible news to hear about that fire. If you were renting, I hope you had renters insurance (though I dont know if it would cover copies of vhs, dvdr, etc).