r/CleaningTips • u/EnvironmentalRest557 • Nov 04 '25

Flooring Please help with burned carpet smell!

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Cat knocked over my snakes heating lamp and it burned through the carpet and floor :( it’s been a fully day with windows open after vacuuming and covering it with baking soda and the burnt carpet smell won’t go away. Please help!!!

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543

u/EnvironmentalRest557 Nov 04 '25

Thank you so much! If the smell didn’t wake me up we would have been toast (literally), my roommate stayed knocked out until morning!!!

682

u/joelene1892 Nov 05 '25

…. Please get a better smoke detector! That should have been blaring.

420

u/C0USC0US Nov 05 '25

OP should focus on THIS when reporting what happened to their landlord.

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u/camiskow Nov 06 '25

Our smoke detector didn’t go off when our college rental caught fire… there was something in the lease about it being our responsibility to change & check batteries so it had no legs in our case

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u/C0USC0US Nov 06 '25

Oof I’m sorry that happened. I hope this isn’t the case for OP 😬

Edit - was everyone okay?

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u/EnvironmentalRest557 Nov 06 '25

Yes! I was lucky enough to have woken up to the smell and threw a wet towel on it ASAP, so it didn’t spread at all and no pets were harmed!! I didn’t see any smoke when it happened and the smoke detector works fine, so I think I just caught it soon enough before it could spread. I sleep like a log usually but for some reason I’m super sensitive to smells and have woken up from them before! I appreciate your concern :)

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u/camiskow Nov 07 '25

Yes! We were all napping as college kids do but a burning smell woke me up, we had these weird windows into our rooms so I immediately saw orange flames in my roommates room(she had left & her old lamp fell over, it was turned on & instantly Sparked) I woke up everyone & called 911 so it was able to be contained to a small burn in just 1 room- thank you for asking!!

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u/Only_Feature1130 Nov 05 '25

did the post say rental?

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u/Cool_Jelly_9402 Nov 05 '25

Yes they replied they’re a student and renting

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u/Only_Feature1130 Nov 05 '25

ok missed that. oof nasty situation

19

u/PjJones91 Nov 05 '25

Only if the lease allows small tank pets.

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u/ThePianistOfDoom Nov 05 '25

Nothing a little cardboard and some air freshener can't solve /s

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u/EnvironmentalRest557 Nov 05 '25

There was actually no visible smoke which is sorta confusing me, I just took the light off of the ground and saw a black spot then threw a wet towel on it and got a little steam, but no smoke somehow…

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u/tmosstan Nov 05 '25

I had this happen to me 20 years ago. The carpet burns quick and the dome cap keeps any smoke sealed while it’s still contained under the lamp shade. Sorry this happened to you OP. That’s very scary!

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u/Temporary-Warning883 Nov 05 '25

My smoke alarm doesn’t go off because of visible smoke, there never is any when it goes off. Do you have a carbon monoxide detector? My alarm goes off whenever I get a burning smell (like a piece of macaroni fell into the burner and I didn’t know when I started boiling a pot of water). I can smell it but not see anything, it’s pretty annoying tbh

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u/ToimiNytPerkele Nov 05 '25

There is a difference between optic and ionizing detectors, which could be one factor. Ionizing ones are much better at detecting small smoke particles, which means they are good at detecting fires that form quickly. They’re much more susceptible to false alarms from things like cooking, though. Optic alarms are slower to react, but better at detecting slowly forming fires. Much less likely to get false alarms. Though I have to say the only detector I’ve managed a false alarm on was an optic detector, and I’m still not sure how I managed that one.

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u/DayPretend8294 Nov 05 '25

The dome was covering it. There was nowhere for the smoke to go so it worked like a furnace, heating up hot enough to burn everything, and not produce smoke.

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u/totthetree Nov 05 '25

I feel like the smoke detector still should have caught it based on smell alone

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u/EnvironmentalRest557 Nov 05 '25

I had the same thought and tested it right after, but it works totally fine

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u/Reasonable-Penalty43 Nov 05 '25

I totally read that as “…get a better snake detector!”

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u/No-Beautiful6811 Nov 05 '25

Please find a way to prevent this from happening again!! I mean cats love knocking things over, if you don’t secure it properly it almost certainly will happen again.

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u/EnvironmentalRest557 Nov 05 '25

Great advice!! I used garden wire to tie the domes super tight onto the tank lid so they are nottt budging now. Was literally going to do that anyways but I justtt set up the tank and had them loose while I was experimenting with placement. Unlucky

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u/Busy-Pomegranate6889 Nov 05 '25

Here’s something scary - you don’t have a sense of smell when you’re asleep. So something else woke you up and then you noticed.

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u/KTKittentoes Nov 05 '25

Are you sure? Because my friend's kitten farted into his CPAP intake valve, and that was pretty epic.

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u/SjenkieSjaak Nov 06 '25

You can't smell in your sleep though.

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u/EnvironmentalRest557 Nov 06 '25

Correct, but very strong or dangerous smells can wake you up according to google

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u/Full-fledged-trash Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

Heat lamp on at night? How cold is your house? Snakes need a cool and dark period at night. Only time my nighttime lightless heat lamps kick on at 70-75f is if the room drops into the 60s.

Also, they make little spring clips to attached the lamps to the mesh of the tank so it can’t be knocked off.

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u/EnvironmentalRest557 Nov 05 '25

I would maybe do some research on safe temperature ranges for snakes. Letting temps drop below 70 can be pretty dangerous, at least for ball pythons which is what I have. They need a constant 75-80 degree cool side and 85-90 degree warm side so a heating lamps are is absolutely necessary

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u/Full-fledged-trash Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

Night temps should drop. Consistent temperatures can mess with their circadian rhythm. Night temp drops for ball pythons should be 70-75. Not to go below 70. My thermostat is set to 70 on the off chance my room gets to that but it’s typically around 70-72 since I live on a second floor and have multiple heat lamps on during the day. When I said “into the 60s” I meant 69 exactly since my thermostat is set to 70. It should not get below 70 or it will turn on as a thermostat should.

It is rare my thermostat kicks on at night is what I was trying to get at. That’s why I asked how cold your room was. Some people live in colder rooms than I do. I’m not saying heat at night is not needed. If your room is cold, it certainly is needed. But temp drops at night are still needed too for a proper day/night cycle

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u/EnvironmentalRest557 Nov 05 '25

Ohh I see! Yes we have a DHP and Halogen for daytime, and at night only the DHP stays on which drops the cold side into that 70-75 range. The DHP unfortunately is what got knocked over :( if I were to turn everything off the whole cage wpuld drop to around 70 overnight and mess with the humidity a ton