My coop caught on fire!! *Pics added in Post 15*

[wolfpak]

We ALMOST had a barn fire due to using a light in the coop.
Had purchased a ceramic base light with the metal shade & the cheap 4 bar metal guard from a local Rural King Store. Had a sweet old huge Cornish Rock roo that loved to sit under the light most of the day. (he died yesterday of "natural causes" those enormous sweeties don't usually live long, but he was content, and could walk, no bone problems, etc....)

Had the light clamp tied up with rope to the coop ceiling, and the electrical cord available for supporting it as well for back up (NO I did NOT advise using it for support.. only that it would hold it off the floor if the rope broke) :

- the cheap 4 bar guard broke in the middle where the bars are connected...

- the junky clamp around the base of the ceramic heater fell off ...

- the cord had been given some slack by DH doing work in the coop...

- the lamp landed ON, open side straight down in a thin layer of straw/pine shavings on the cement coop floor.

We walked into the barn and it smelled like something was burning.... that would be the straw under the lamp smoldering and black!!!
Likely since lamp landed straight down it sort of suffocated the smoldering hay at the same time.
Had it been a BARE BULB it DEFINITELY would have been in flames!!!!!

Bottom line: We got VERY lucky!
Irony of it all: I'm a Journeyman Electrician....

!!!Yikes!!!

 

[Firework]

Here's something I've always wondered about. If my coop caught on fire at night would my chickens wake up and run out of the coop? Or would they just stay in there and die? Sad to think about but I still want to know.

 

[CMV]

Quote:
Unfortunately, they would likely succumb to smoke inhalation. Birds are not very sharp in the dark. They would probably just stay on their roosts until the air quality got bad enough to kill them. It doesn't take much CO to be deadly to birds. They are easily damaged by anything respiratory related.

 

[Firework]

Quote:
Unfortunately, they would likely succumb to smoke inhalation. Birds are not very sharp in the dark. They would probably just stay on their roosts until the air quality got bad enough to kill them. It doesn't take much CO to be deadly to birds. They are easily damaged by anything respiratory related.

Yeah, I guess I never thought of that.

Thanks.

 

[JustMandy]

I had no idea this thread had been resurected! Oops!

Thanks for all the kind words. I'm so glad my story can help keep others safe!

We just put christmas lights in the coop the other day. So far we are still egg free.

My girls were on their roosts, wet and stinky. They didn't even leave the coop when the firemen were hosing down the INSIDE of the coop. The dark really paralizes them. I really doubt they would ever leave the coop in the case of a fire.

 

[FireTigeris]

Unfortunately this is another reason HOA and cities disallow chickens, they are "clearly a fire hazard" where a horse, dog, or cat is not.

 

[Muscovies]

Is your chickens ok

 

[Firework]

Quote:
Yes, she said they were all ok.

 

[u2cme21999]

I have a big heat lamp and a light that I keep on 24 hr a day,after ready this I will prob. get the heat lamp out and put the light on a timer.

 

[mithious]

Wow, sooo sorry!!! Glad the chickens lived though!!!

This is exactly why I won't put any kind of light in my coop, heat or other wise. I live in a VERY cold climate area, and the chickens are doing just fine with no heat and since they are a spring hatch, the pullets are laying, 5 eggs a day, so far, out of 14...the rest haven't started yet and that is fine with me, as long as they are safe!

I do add warm water to their fount and give them a warm pellet mash, with eggs, shell and all, crumbled in, in the am...and scratch in the afternoon...they love to scratch the bedding, which means I don't have to turn it, and stay warm while scratching around...so far, with the coldest Dec in decades, they are doing fine with far below 0 temps, even in the day time. I fear fire too much, to add light of any kind!

Thanks for sharing your story and helping others see that lighting and heating is not nessesary and can end in such horrible outcomes!