LAPORTE, Ind. – A Purdue University farm safety expert is cautioning producers that heat lamps used to keep small animals warm are notorious for causing fires.

Bill Field said heat lamps demand a lot of electricity, which can burn through any broken wiring inside the insulation.

Field said heat lamps should never be allowed to dangle from the ceiling or rafters by an extension cord because they become “incredibly hot” while in use.

The main electrical wire can become disconnected from the extension cord and cause the heat lamp to drop into hay, saw dust or anything else on the floor that can burn.

Field said a better way is to hook the frame of a heat lamp to a chain that can be raised from the ground or lowered depending on the need the animals have for warmth.

“That way you’re not actually suspending the heating lamp by the cord,” he said.

Field said extension cords should also be heavy enough to handle the voltage needed to power heaters used to keep water, set out for the animals to drink, from freezing.

The energy flowing into an overloaded extension cord can burn through the insulation and start a fire, he said.

A heat lamp is believed to be the cause of a Thanksgiving Day fire in a chicken coop that killed 17 chicks on North Range Road in LaPorte County. The coop was destroyed by the blaze.

According to LaPorte County Police, the property owner, William Bolton, was notified about the fire by two men driving past his residence. Police said the chicken coop was inside a shed also used to store miscellaneous tools, a riding mower and a turkey deep fryer, which was not being used at the time.

Bolton told investigators he believed the source of the fire was a heat lamp used to keep the chicks warm.

Springfield Township Fire Chief Steve Marvel agreed, saying there were no other electrical appliances inside the shed plugged in at the time.

Marvel said one possibility is the heat lamp, after somehow tipping over or falling, made contact with some hay and ignited the material.

He said there was no evidence left to try to piece together exactly how the fire started, though, because of the amount of damage. “There was really no way to reconstruct it. There was literally nothing left,” Marvel said.

Field suggested chicken coops be outfitted with electrical outlets supplied by heavy enough wiring placed beneath the ground. He said many people run extension cords 100 feet or longer from their homes to their chicken coops not knowing the fire risk of such a practice.

Field said the effort it takes to push energy such a long distance generates resistance inside the cord. The resistance can cause the wiring to overheat and melt the cord.

Field also said people should not use heat lamps for long durations unless they’re keeping chicks warm. He said the feathers on a chicken provide good enough protection against extreme temperatures to avoid constant use of an artificial source of heat.

Field said the best advice is for people not to raise chicks during the winter because the cost of energy exceeds the returns.

“The electricity bills to raise those chicks is going to be greater than anything you’ll make from the eggs,” he said.

He said chicks should start being raised in March when the demand for energy is far less. “You don’t plant corn in January. You don’t like to have your calves born in January so why are you trying to raise baby chicks in January or December?”