WINTHROP, MAINE —
A family of three is homeless after a two-story home with an attached garage was destroyed by a fire Thursday afternoon at 145 Maranacook Road in Winthrop.
A mother, Cathy Halsey, and her son who lived in the home noticed the fire after it started in the garage, said Dan Brooks, chief of the Winthrop Fire Department. They got out safely, as did a pig that was living in their garage.
The first report of the fire was made shortly before 3 p.m., and by 3:30 p.m. the building was fully engulfed in flames. By 4 p.m. the fire was largely contained, but firefighters still were attacking it with water and planning to look for hot spots inside.
Halsey’s husband, Ray Halsey, was not at home at the time. At least one dog and some chickens also lived there and weren’t harmed in the fire, but cats might have died, Brooks said. A mobile home located on the property, where another person was living, wasn’t harmed, Brooks added.
The American Red Cross of Maine announced Thursday night that it was providing the family with food and shelter and would provide financial assistance to them in the coming days.
The family, which was unavailable for comment Thursday, had owned the home for a couple years, Brooks said. The building was insured.Advertisement
According to Brooks, Cathy Halsey said that a heat lamp was running on the garage’s first floor, where the pig was living, and might have started the blaze. She apparently had moved some things around shortly before it started.
That explanation was consistent with the way the fire seemed to have spread through the building, Brooks said.
A representative of the state fire marshal’s office was going to the home Thursday night to determine the fire’s precise cause.
The use of heat lamps to warm animals, usually birds, has caused several fires in central Maine in the last few years. From 2016 to 2017, the devices sparked fires in Vassalboro, Wilton and Strong, Maine. In 2012, a heat lamp also caused a blaze in Farmingdale, Maine.
Maranacook Road is off Route 41 in Winthrop, on the west side of Maranacook Lake. When the fire was reported, towns in the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid Association were called to help.
The road was busy as tanker trucks drove back and forth to downtown Winthrop, a couple minutes away, to retrieve water from Maranacook Lake. Rain was falling throughout the response, and the sun had largely set by 5 p.m., leaving firefighters to work in the dark for the next couple hours.
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Lamp used to warm baby chickens caused Bar Harbor fatal fire, police say
The lamp either tipped over or was placed too close to a box filled with sawdust.
The Associated Press
BAR HARBOR – Police say a fire that killed a woman in her Bar Harbor home likely started because of a heat lamp being used to keep baby chickens warm.
Firefighters came to the home on Wednesday afternoon and found 46-year-old Melissa Watership in her kitchen. She was taken to a hospital and died there.
Authorities say on Friday that Watership had obtained the chicks on Wednesday morning and placed them in a sawdust-filled box in her bedroom. They say the fire started when the lamp either tipped over or was placed too close to the box.
Police say the fire has been ruled accidental. They say Watership was probably either distracted or sleeping when the fire broke out.
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Vassalboro chicken coop destroyed by fire
A heat lamp might have caused a fire that destroyed the small barn housing baby chickens on South Stanley Hill Road, the fire chief said.
By Amy Calder Staff Writer and Madeline St. Amour Staff Writer
Vassalboro firefighters are investigating whether a heat lamp was the cause of a fire Wednesday morning that destroyed a small barn housing baby chickens on South Stanley Hill Road.
The fire is the second chicken coop fire in two days in the area. A chicken coop in Pittsfield burned Monday.
Vassalboro Fire Chief Eric Rowe said the blaze at Full Circle Farm, on South Stanley Hill Road, was reported around 8 a.m. Wednesday and firefighters were at the scene for about an hour.
About 27 chicks were lost in the fire, said Bernie Welch, who owns the farm. The cost to replace the building, which also was used to prepare products for community-supported agriculture operations, and buy more chickens could go up to $30,000, he estimated.
Rowe said that it was a small coop, “roughly 20 feet long and 10 feet wide,”
“It was a like a pole barn and the chickens were free-range,” Rowe said. “There were some small chicks in there.”Advertisement
He said the fire could have been caused by a heat lamp in the coop. “That’s what they’re looking at right now,” Rowe said just after 11 a.m. “It’s not something I’m going to call the fire marshal’s office on. It’s a total loss.”
Rowe said nobody was hurt during the fire.
Winslow firefighters were called to the scene Wednesday morning under a mutual aid agreement, but they were sent back because firefighters at the scene reported the fire was out.
Nothing like this has happened in the 13 years Welch has run the farm, Welch said.
“Life goes on,” he said. He said he was grateful that the fire at least didn’t touch his house.
Full Circle Farm still is planning to hold its weekly farmers market at the farm this Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.Advertisement
The farm is a community-supported agriculture farm that produces berries, fruit and vegetables, according to the farm’s Facebook page.
The Monday fire in Pittsfield was reported at 1:55 p.m. behind a residence on Madawska Avenue. The cause wasn’t available.
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10 ducks saved from Wilton, ME shed fire
A heat lamp started the fire, according to officials.
By Madeline St. Amour
Staff Writer
WILTON, ME — A fire caused by a heat lamp totaled a shed on Thomas Street Saturday, but the owners were able to rescue the ducks inside before the structure was engulfed in flames, fire officials said.
Firefighters received a report of a fire on 6 Thomas St. around 5 p.m. When Fire Chief Sonny Dunham arrived at the scene, he said the 10-by-10-foot shed was already “fully engulfed.”
By the time the Wilton fire truck arrived, the building was collapsing, he said.
The shed was used to house about 10 ducks, according to Dunham. A heat lamp kept in the shed for the ducks started the fire.
Dunham said the owners were able to get the ducks out before firefighters arrived at the scene.
“They saved them all,” he said.
Firefighters put out the flames within a half-hour, Dunham said, adding that it was a “pretty simple” job.
The shed was flattened. Dunham didn’t know if the owners have insurance on it.
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Structure fire in Pittsfield, Maine started in chicken coop
Three fire departments responded to the fire on Monday, which destroyed a garage and chicken coop but left the house intact.
By Madeline St. Amour
Staff Writer
PITTSFIELD, ME — A structure fire in Pittsfield on Monday afternoon started in a chicken coop behind the residence and was extinguished before it reached the house, a fire official said.
The fire started behind a residence on Madawaska Avenue at 1:55 p.m. The Pittsfield Fire Department responded shortly after and was later aided by the Newport and Detroit fire departments.
Lt. Adam Noyes of the Newport department said Tuesday morning he did not know the cause of the fire. The Pittsfield fire chief could not immediately be reached.
The fire started in a chicken coop and then caught the garage before touching some of the home’s siding, although it did not burn the house, Noyes said.
About 25 firefighters responded and extinguished the fire in less than one hour, Noyes said.
The chicken coop and garage are gone, he said. Some of the siding on the house was melted off, but was not damaged otherwise. Advertisement
Noyes said he didn’t believe anyone was home at the time, and no one was injured at the scene as far as he knew. One firefighter was assessed by the EMS team on the scene because of the heat, but wasn’t transferred to the hospital.
The hot weather is why multiple departments responded to the fire, he said.
“Wearing all that turnout gear is exhausting on us,” Noyes said. He
said firefighters will switch out at the scene to rehydrate and cool
down.
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Heat Lamps and Pets
This week we’re going to discuss heat lamps. Heat lamps use a light bulb to provide heat for some critter that needs higher than ambient temperatures to survive. Most reptiles and some amphibians require warmer temperatures than we typically see here in the northwest. Many birds require higher temperatures, especially young birds. Incubation operations for hatching eggs require heat lamps. In many chicken operations light from heat lamps also help speed up growth processes. Often, farmers will use heat lamps to warm livestock during winter time cold snaps. The concept is solid and widely used in agriculture throughout colder climates.
There are some hazards with heat lamps. We’ve seen lizards, chickens, pheasants and a pig all killed in fires caused by heat lamps. Additionally homes have been damaged and lost in these fires. In most cases the critter got involved in pulling down the heat lamp system so the fire occurred.
Young birds reach a point in their development where they want to fly up and perch as high as possible. Many chicken farmers hang their feeders using a chain so the swinging feeder makes it difficult for young chickens to perch there. These birds often try perching on the suspended heat lamp and knock it down into the combustible bedding material (sawdust or straw). We’ve seen lots of chicken sheds lost this way and one fire that took about 50 golden pheasants.
We’ve seen several lizards die in tanks where the bodies were all wrapped up in the cord. It appears they got tangled up and in an attempt to escape, pulled the lamp down into combustibles.
We’ve also seen a pig owner install heat lamps during a winter cold snap, as well as a water bed heater for the pig to sleep on. We’re not sure if the pig walking on the water bed heater caused it to short, or if the pig chewed on a cord, or if it pulled a heat lamp down into the straw. The final outcome burned the pen, killed the pig, and threatened the shop and home.
We’ve also seen laundry draped over the lizard tank catch fire.
Heat lamps work as advertised, pumping out heat as long as they’re on with no regard for combustibles. The following will help to reduce the hazards posed by heat lamps for pets and livestock:
- Use UL-listed heat lamps and follow manufacturer’s instructions.
- Heat lamps with guards may provide some protection if the lamp falls into combustible bedding.
- Ensure heat lamps are installed in locations where they are far enough from any combustibles to preclude ignition. Remember that wooden construction elements will eventually dry out and ignite from a heat lamp too.
- Ensure the installation is secure and the light cannot be knocked down.
- Run cords in locations where animals cannot reach them.
- Make sure electrical circuits are not overloaded. Heat lamps use more amperage than regular lights.
- Keep all combustibles away from heat lamps and ensure kids doing chores are aware of the hazards.
- Check the lamp and mounting periodically to ensure it is secure.
If you’ve got concerns about your heat lamp, stop and check it out. That few minutes may save your pets, your livestock, your barn, or even your home.
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No farmer wants to have a fire, but we all practice fire prevention in different ways.
By Michael Glos
It is an accepted premise that farming is a daily lesson in managing
risk. Some farmers are more risk averse than others but we all find our
comfort level and work from there. For example: I am not comfortable
borrowing $100,000, while I know other farmers of my same scale who are.
The risk of a fire on the farm is another area which is managed
differently by each farmer. No farmer wants to have a fire, but we
all practice fire prevention in different ways.
Chicks staying warm under an Ohio Brooder. Photos by Michael Glos.
This spring I opened up my email inbox to find some very unsettling
news. The night before there had been a fire at the Maine farm where I
had first interned 20 years ago. The barn where I had learned to milk,
harness horses, and generally catch the farming bug was a smoldering
pile. And worse of all, it took the lives of all the animals in it,
including one of the horses I had worked with. My heart went out to the
Thayer’s who could only watch in tears as a centerpiece of their farm
went up in flames. Luckily no humans were injured or killed.
Through conversations with other farmers and firefighters, I know the
truth about rural fires and the role of the fire department. If you
live rurally and have a fire you should not depend on the fire
department to come save your house or barn. We have seen too many fires
destroy houses of friends and neighbors. Even the house of our local
volunteer fire department chief burned while, ironically, he was at the
fire station.
We have a fantastic network of volunteer firefighters who will come,
but only in time to contain a fire, potentially try to rescue the
occupants, and keep it from spreading to other structures. The fact is,
it will likely be at least 30 minutes after I make that call that a
fire engine will show up at my farm. Even with three volunteer stations
within 5 miles of my house, the firefighters have to first get to the
station after receiving the call and then come to my place. All the
water has to be trucked in or pumps have to be set up to transport the
water from our pond or the creek across the street. During this time the
fire will be burning and spreading.
With those assumptions we know the most important thing to do is to
prevent the potential of a fire on the farm and, secondly, to have a
plan of what to do if we have one. Prevention primarily involves
removing as many risks as possible and reasonable. I can only scratch
the surface on preventative measures, but we know that buildings with
power in them have an increased risk of fire. Our equipment shed is
unlikely to burn because it has no source to cause a fire, but our main
barns and house, all with power, are at a higher risk. Add a propane
heater, all wood construction, 1000 bales of hay, feed, many electrical
outlets, and freezers with motors and you have many potential sources of
fire.
For the sake of this article I will primarily look at one potential
source of fire on our farm: heat lamps. They were the cause of the fire
in Maine, a number of other fires I have heard about, and two fires on
our own farm. Heat lamps, generally defined, are portable hanging
fixtures with bulbs in them (usually 150-250vw). They can be purchased
at almost any farm or general hardware store and are usually cheap,
under $10.00.
Three Styles of heat lamps least expensive and riskiest (left) to most expensive and safest (right).
A number of characteristics that are not always fully appreciated
make heat lamps a high risk. Most are poorly made, with short thin
cords, poor connections to the fixture, unreliable attachment points for
hanging, and just general cheap construction. In addition, farmers
generally don’t have a good place to install them because many of us
plan to use them “temporarily” and don’t have a permanent set up.
Perhaps it has gotten cold so a lamp is quickly hung up in the corner of
a stall to warm a newborn lamb or 100 chicks that have just arrived.
This heat lamp hangs in the corner, attached with baling twine- an
accident waiting to happen.
As I mentioned earlier, we have had two fires on our farm since we
began in 1996. One was in a greenhouse brooder not attached to, but very
close to, the barn. We discovered the fire after it was basically out.
Apparently, a brooder lamp had fallen into the bedding. Luckily, aside
from the shavings (on wet ground), there was very little to burn. PVC
hoops and plastic are not very flammable. But most of the chicks were
sadly killed. We felt very lucky that the fire had not spread to our
main barn–just feet away.
We moved our brooder facility away from the barn and soon after
started using “Ohio Brooders” that use heat bulbs but not the hanging
fixtures. Not only are they safer, but they can use less power because
smaller wattage bulbs are required and are a much better way to warm the
chickens.
The second fire happened a year ago last spring. We thought we had
learned from our previous mistakes. We were using thicker bulbs, and
better fixtures. But one of these must have had a frayed wire
internally that shorted out without tripping the breaker. The wires
melted and the bulb dropped into the very dry straw in one of our piglet
brooder boxes. I believe it is pure luck that I looked out at the sow
barn on the way in for lunch. It appeared that the loose snow was
blowing off the roof, but as I stepped into the house I had second
thoughts. Something didn’t look right. I quickly realized I was seeing
smoke, not snow, coming out of the eaves. I called back to the house,
grabbed the fire extinguisher, and put out the fire. A few buckets of
water finished it off. I fully believe that if I had eaten lunch, our
sow barn would have burned.
To help prevent on-farm fires from heat lamps, I share the following recommendations from our experiences:
The best thing is not to use them. An exposed hanging hot
bulb that is drying the bedding (tinder) below is always going to be a
fire risk. Put in systems for your livestock that do not need the
supplemental heat. This may include major paradigm shifts like having
lambs later in the spring, or using mother hens to raise chicks instead
of buying them. We, like most farmers, are not able (or willing) to
completely eliminate a need for heat lamps so we must do everything we
can to minimize the risk. At a minimum, turn them off as soon as you
don’t need them.
Don’t use cheap poorly made heat lamps. Throw out all of those
hardware store heat lamps. We have tried a half dozen types of heat
lamps and have currently settled on one from Premier that costs about
$40.00. It is completely enclosed and is said to be able to fall and
not cause a fire. It has a thick long cord and the electrical
connections are sealed.
Use hard glass bulbs–not the thin glass ones. We have switched
over to using hard 175w bulbs form Farmerboy Ag. Supply. They are much
less likely to shatter and we have developed different types of brooder
boxes (for pigs and chickens) that stay warm without the need for a 250w
bulb.
Secure them like they are permanent. Use chains and not twine. Keep them out of the way of livestock that can disturb them.
Upgrade your breaker panel. At the recommendation of an
electrician we installed an “Arc Fault Interrupter” breaker for the
circuits in our barns where we have heat lamps connected. Unlike our
previous GFI breaker which failed to trip when the fixture sparked, this
type of breaker is made to trip. The down side is these breakers cost
about $40 instead of $4.00.
Use heat lamps in buildings that are isolated from other buildings. For
us this means having small detached brooder buildings for our chickens
and a specific building for our sows/piglets. This is much preferred to
brooding in our main barn where we store all of our grain, hay,
freezers, tools, and other livestock.
Put a smoke detector in all buildings with the potential of fire.
A really loud one with an external speaker is recommended but a
standard battery operated one with an annually changed battery is a
minimum.
Have at least one fire extinguisher at main entrances of all buildings.
In our main barn we have one at each end. We use commercial
rechargeable extinguishers and check them annually for a full charge.
Learn how to use one and have them clearly marked.
Review your insurance policy and make sure you know what coverage you do and don’t have. You
may think you have more coverage than you actually do and don’t want
any surprises when you really need it. We don’t insure everything but we
do insure what we don’t want to self-insure.
Heavy rescue and police vehicles at the scene of an accident in Shoreham, Nov. 18, 2017. Photo Credit: Ed Betz 
