As you all know, reptiles and amphibians require a certain temperature in their habitat and the natural source of sunlight, or the use of a UVB, UVA lamp.
Basically my question is that, are these things dangerous?
I've been using this brand-ish, http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752615, for the past 6 months for my White's dumpy. However my parents have been warning me about the dangers of it. They said because of it's supposed ' intense heat" or whatever it creates… they said it could catch the WHOLE HOUES ON FIRE.

I keep thinking they're just exaggerating, but i just wanted to know if theres any potential hazard, danger with these lamps that the guys at petco and petsmart suggested for us to use to heat our pets.
thanks.

Your Petsmart link doesn't work.. It just brings me to their main page..
Are you using a fluorescent fixture (long tubes) or a Mercury Vapor bulb (looks like an incandescent bulb but would've cost about $40)?
If you're using a mercury vapor bulb of 250w in a regular fixture, yes, that could cause a fire.. Anything like that needs to be used with a dome fixture that has a ceramic base rather then the plastic ones most of the ones at the hardware store have.
You want to make sure that the lighting fixture is attached in place and away from any flammable materials. The most common cause of fires I've heard of with reptile lamps is when the lamp isn't anchored securely and gets knocked down into the substrate. Fluorescent bulbs don't let off as much heat. But, you still wouldn't want to have any kind of fabric or hay or other flammables all that close to it..
My personal rule is that I keep lighting and heating fixtures about a foot away from anything flammable.
You'll probably want to get a laser temp gun anyhow to make sure the temps are right in your enclosures. Then you can just use that to see what temperatures things get right around your lighting fixture..
I bought mine for about $20 on Ebay.. It's a proexotics PE-1 and works very well. That way I can make sure there aren't any unusually hot spots around the lamp or in the enclosure.
If you have cats, make sure to anchor the light fixture.. Cats have a tendency to knock things like that over and if it landed on something flammable like a pile of clothes that could start a fire..

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