The American Beagler Forum

Woke up this morning around 4am to the awefullest sound of dogs crying and whining, raised up out of bed , looked out my window and could see nothing but an orange glow and flames coming from one of my above ground pens. I ran outside and could see the pups at the open end of the pen, I ripped the wire loose and luckily got them out just in time. Another couple of minutes and they would have burnt up. Its made me sick all morning just thinking about it. I figured that the heat lamp that I was using , was pulled down by one of the pups and started the fire. Anyway, just thought I would share my experience and am thankful everything turned out alright.

Wow, it's a good thing your kennels are in earshot from the house. That would've been terrible.

Glad to hear you got them out. That's why I don't like the thought of heat lamps.

Its not been really cold enough for a heat lamp, but I cleaned the old bedding out of their box and used the light to try and dry up the dampness in the box. I will be alot more careful next time with placement of lamp and cords.

man that was close. glad you got them.

I'm glad you got your hounds out in time.

That's scarey !!! I'm glad they weren't harmed .

sounds like a VERY scary way to wake up and start ur morning...glad u got them out

Glad you got 'em out of there, Will. Your experience is why I have not and will not put heat lamps inside my dog house. Anything beagles, especially the youngsters, can chew or pull on, they will chew and pull. My phone lines and tv coax on the side of the house have the scars and splices to prove it.
And I'm not trying to wire brush you cause you got caught by Murphy's Law. I've also shopped around for heated water bowls and heat lamps - it was tempting. I chickened out.

I am SOOO sorry to read about this but am thankful all was ok. In a way what happened may be a good thing because now you have people thinking. Maybe your post can prevent this from happening again to someone else.

I work in the Electrical field (ex-electrician but am an estimater now for the company). One of the things we ran across in the commercial field is a light fixture they use in walk in coolers and on some oven hoods.

On our whelping boxes we use these fixtures because they are safe. We pipe the electrical wiring inside the box in 1/2 inch EMT so the dogs can't chew through and have a plug on the outside to plug into an extention cord . We also use a thermostat on the fixture so if it gets too hot or cold in the box it will shut off or on automatically.

Here is the fixture I use. It uses up to a 200 watt light bulb but we usually use 100's or 150 watts.
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/3RB17

Thanks for the info. southernbeagles, I will be more cautious in the future.

I guess all us sparky's are the same. I use the exact same fixtures in all mine and have never had any problem at all. Nothing is exposed and you only have to clean the lick marks off them. (LOL) I also have a heating pad which is made of hard plastic for the real cold times, the cord leaves the unit and goes directly through the brooder wall so theres nothing to chew on it either. I built my brooders where the pad fits in it perfectly and will not move at all, but there is a 18" space at one end for the female and pups to get off the pad if needed. Glad you saved the hounds. Name them accordingly, you know Smokey and such. I've got one named Barbwire Bruno as the first trip to the big woods he got tangled up in some and was cut up and laying in it whinning afraid to move when I found him. LOL