question on fish tank light hoods

[loaches r cool]

Its really hard to speculate but if its as old as you say chances are there was a little corrosion on the endcap contacts, maybe the springiness was gone also making a bad connection. Also if it was old some dust probably accumulated... so if it happened to spark due to poor connection, with dust present, well you get the idea.

 

[kj5kb]

Actually, the house is only 6 years old and was built by my husband, who is a general contractor. What had happened was the one light on the left started first, as the flames rose it got so hot, it started to melt and was so close to the other one, that the side of the other one started to melt and smoke from the heat of the other one. What a pain in the ---!! Thank God for smoke detectors!

ahh...wasnt sure if BOTH burned or one started the other. Those hoods would have probably had magnetic ballasts...which, as stated above, can go spectacularly. I used to work at a large store built in the 60's; there were several large black marks on the ceiling where ballasts had burned up over the years. Seems they are filled with a tarry substance that burns quite well once you get it hot enough.