250w ballast putting out an alarming amount of heat - HELP

I have a single plant in its flowering stage under a 250w HPS and ive noticed when i touched the ballast that it is putting out alot of heat, i touched the bottem of the ballast and it was so hot that it is very uncomfortable to keep my hand on it longer then a few seconds. Is this normal?

Ive had the ballast sitting on the the carpet in my closet and just raised it off the ground using 2 tin cans to hopfully get some better ventilation.

The ballast is plugged into a 6 plug adapter along with a 50hz 30w fan and nothing else.
Currently the temp in the closet is steady at 28 deg.C with one of the doors left open. With the doors closed it goes up to about 30 deg.C

My question: Is this normal for the ballast to get so hot? and also what can i do to further lower the room temp and prevent any fire hazards?

UPDATE!:
After raising the ballast off the carpet i have also put a small fan under the ballast to cool it down abit and also added a smoke alarm in the closet for added safety!

Maybe put a fan on the ballast if you are really worried about it. Don't leave it on carpet that is a fire hazard. Find something that's not flammable to leave it on.

Doesnt anyone here use a ballast or what?

I have a 250W hood with a built in ballast, yes it's gets kinda hot also I have a exhaust fan pulling air from it.

Oh ya thats why your supposed to hang it and not mount it to your ceiling. My 150w hps display fixture gets hot as fuck when running for 8 hours a day. even when dealing with these low wattages ventilation is still essential for hardy growth

If it's a problem, buy a digital one - it will not be hot. Warmth = waste energy.