Fire Safety in your Chicken Coop & Barn - IMPORTANT!

[what did I do]

I'm sorry for your losses. Thanks for posting this. I think more people need to know about fire safety. So many chicken people use heat lamps and I'm surprised that more fires don't happen. I know of 2 people who lost barns last year due to heat lamps.

 

[Gargoyle]

I'm so sorry to hear about this. I do have a couple of short extension cords, (it just so happens that I eliminated one this afternoon). Our main wiring is high quality hard wire. I check it regularly, but I'll check it again first thing in the morning.

Aoxa, We have no idea who told the paper unless it was the fire department them selves. We sure would n't have put our actual address in the article that is for sure.

Newspapers pick up all the police reports, so they probably also pick up all the fire department reports.

 

[NanaKat]

Aoxa..so sorry to be reading about your fire and the losses. Your information is so helpful and reminds us that fires can be prevented.

We have several old fashioned pole barns. The main barn houses my birds in a hen house and a brooder room. We have rewired the barn In the past several years with new wiring and enclosed light fixtures. Hubby put in new outlets and installed one up on a rafter for our ceiling fans.

As I left the barn earlier this evening, I noticed a sparrow had constructed a nest of straw, grass and twigs on top of the outlet. I immediately pulled it down and cleaned the outlet.

So adding to the list of things to watch..nests constructed by wild birds near outlets and light fixtures.

 

[ClothespinQueen]

We lost everything in the Bastrop TX wildfires of Sept 2011... so we know all about fires.

We've rebuilt our home and are now in the process, within the next couple of weeks, of building our first chicken coop! (Though I should say that both of us did grow up in rural areas/on farms and both of us had chickens as kids.)

I've read in the comments to this post that many coop/barn fires are caused by heater lamps and dust on the bulbs and... since we've already gone through the fire thing once, we'd REALLY like to avoid the fire issue. What, besides the heat lamp, will work for adult girls? And, can you install a smoke detector in a chicken coop? Our coop, since we are in the hot and humid Texas, will be open on one side with a secure dog kennel for the outer part of the pen. We'll only need a heat source occasionally in the winter.

And, just a thought for everyone... make sure your out buildings are listed on your home owners insurance. You want to make sure you have coverage in case the worst does happen. For that matter - check your home owners insurance and make sure you have enough coverage for your house too and ask them what you need to have to file a claim. Usually, a list of ALL items in your house (down to how many and what kind of undies you have and how many bottle of shampoo - not kidding) including model numbers and serial numbers. Disasters are traumatizing enough but sadly, as we've learned, the insult to injury comes from trying to get compensation from the insurance company.

 

[ThePaintedHen]

I am so sorry for the loss of your animals and your property. Thank you for the message on safety. I send my good thoughts your way....

 

[hogster160]

I am so sorry for your loss. My heart is breaking for you and your family. You bring up very valid concerns, ones each of us need to check and then double check.

March 8, 2000 at 135 am my husband got up to turn off the alarm clock. Only it didn't turn off. It was our smoke alarm. We had a fire at our home. He woke me up, said there was a fire and we needed to get the kids and get out. He felt the door, no heat just smoke coming in from around the closed door. See we had a wood burning stove for heat and didn't notice the smell, not enough to wake us up anyway. We got our 3 kids out of bed, and went to the closest door, it wouldn't open, the heat in the attic caused the header to swell. At this point we are crawling, smoke from ceiling to floor. Back to the bedroom and out the window. We all survived. We lost one cat in the fire. But our house was a complete loss.

Our fire started when a pipe froze and burst and hit wires, which also broke. Having a fire of any sort makes you look for those problem area. To be aware. Please install smoke alarms and change the batteries 2 x a year.

May God bless you and continue to keep you safe.

Deb

 

[ThePaintedHen]

And I want to double-thank you for your input. I have a ceramic heater in the coop and a red heat lamp in the run. Powered by an extension cord. It trips the GFCI every few days and I have to go reset it. I am no longer going to use these items.

 

[ernndbrtt]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Thanks for sharing though because I believe many will now take a look at their heating and lighting solutions and figure out if they are dangerous or not. We too had a barn fire on January 20th of this year. Fortunately we lost no living things as our chickens are in their own separate coop well away from the barn and our dogs are house dogs but we did lose my wife's SUV, our Harley, and every tool and piece of equipment I've accumulated over the last 25 years.

This is all that is left of our 24' X 40' 3-1/2 car pole barn garage. Folks PLEASE check your homeowners insurance policy and make sure your seperate buildings on your property have enough insurance to pay for re-building. We did not. Our policy only covered our barn for 10% of what our home was insured for, which was not even close to what is going to take to re-build it. Like I said, we were fortunate to not lose any pets or people but our rough estimate (we're still trying to remember everything we had and list it) is that we lost about $80,000 in tools and equipment which is a joy in it's self to get replaced because the insurance doesn't give you enough money up front to replace everything at full cost. They use a depreciated value which means you get to go buy your new items for full cost, then submit your receipt to them and wait for them to re-imburse you for the difference. We will more than likely not be able to replace everything we had.

 

[aart]

....... What, besides the heat lamp, will work for adult girls? And, can you install a smoke detector in a chicken coop? .....

You really don't need heat in a coop, ventilation is much more important. Chickens have nice warm feathers grown to handle the cold. If you provide supplemental heat their feathers won't grow as thick and if there's a power outage they could suffer then from lack of heat they are used to.

I would think that the dust in a chicken coop might set off a smoke alarm, I beleive they operate by detecting the particulate in the smoke.

 

[Sally8]

The day it started we blew 4 fuses building a large breeding pen. That should have been our sign. If you are blowing fuses, you are using way too much power! Tone it down.

Aoxa - you are unknowingly making a huge difference in so many people's lives. And I thank you for that. My uncles dairy barn fire was caused from electric arcing and he lost everything also.
My house fire was also caused by arcing but it never tripped the breaker. The fire investigator said it had arced 6 hr before causing the fire. We were asleep for 4 of those hours. Didn't set smoke alarms off either. There was no visible sign of a fire before I left for work except an acrid smell. It had been below 0 for a week

DH is a volunteer fireman. When his scanner goes off, the local news hears the scans also. We literally had to throw the newsman out as he was so overbearing.

One thing I didn't know was that we could have insured our house for it's tax value. That's never been explained until after the fire. And it wouldn't have cost much more. Still praying for you and Susan. So excited watching your ideas turn to plans. Sue