Photo via Harwich Animal Control/CWN
CHATHAM – CWN reported on a chicken coop fire on January 22nd. Wednesday morning, Harwich Animal Control reported a sad update and issued a warning for coop owners:
FIRE!
Something we never think is going to happen to us.
We often think about house fires and the things that cause them, but there are many other places fires can happen.
Chicken Coops, Goat Houses, outdoor dog pens and Barns are all common places for fires to start especially when we are trying to keep our animals warm in these frigid temps. Folks often turn to heat lamps to warm the area, and these are VERY dangerous.
A few days ago, in one of my groups a person shared her family’s horrible tragedy in hopes of getting the word out. With Colleen’s permission, I am sharing her post.
This was Colleen’s post after the awful tragedy with her chickens:
In the hopes of saving someone else the heartbreak .. I wasn’t going to use a heat lamp this year. I decided they weren’t safe. Then it got insanely cold and two of my girls died. So, I thought I would just use a heat lamp for the 3 remaining single digit days, then find a safer option. All my beautiful chickens, my chicken mansion we built, 7 years of being a chicken mom, all gone in an instant…
Colleen only had the heat lamp in the coop for a few days, and they lost all of their beautiful chickens and the entire coop.
Our hearts break for Colleen and her family and we appreciate her allowing us to share this awful tragedy in hopes of preventing it from happening to others.
