I was going to put this in "Farm & Kennel", where it belongs, but decided to start it here and move it later. My barns caught fire last night.
It brought to mind the subject of how well prepared we should be in the event of a fire. First and foremost is of course the safety of yourself and your animals. Anywhere else they will tell you to save yourself and let the stock die if you must, but this isn't anywhere else is it? I'll die for my horses and sheep, and I'm not even in love with them, some of you are. So, here's some of what you should do in my area, and what happened last night...
Egress: More than one way in the barn, more than one pasture gate.
What happened at my place: At 3am, I woke hearing my barn alarms going off & smelling smoke, & called 911 while running to the barn. I got out to the main barn with it burning from the top down, ran past the ewe's stall throwing open the metal outside stall gate (already hot enough to burn my hand bad) and began opening horse stalls. The 3yo Border Collie, still being trained and with no command from me, drove the frightened sheep & lambs to the high pasture. Helluva dog. I'd have lost them otherwise. I was running the horses out the side gate, letting them into the practice ring, when the fire jumped to the hay barn. I'm a good distance away from the volunteer fire department, that has to first get a crew...
Fighting flames: If you can, have a source of water nearby. If you live out in the boondocks, like we all want to, dig a fire pond if possible. If you're on a line, put in a hydrant. It's not as expensive as you think and pays for itself in just one fire. If you have a river or stream nearby you might be all set. I also recommend buying your own high pressure pump. Waiting on help can cost you. Extinguishers are nice, but we're talking fires too big for them.
Horses and sheep safe, I did get to my pump, in the machine shed. I have a fire pond and a nearby steam. I chose the stream, leaving the pond for the fire crew, and began trying to spray the base of the horse barn. It was burning slower than the hay barn. I couldn't handle the hose alone though. Neighbors showed up, some with pumps of their own, and the first fire truck which was a small rescue, and we got water on both barns. Embers were blowing toward the house and other barns and we started wetting them down. The machine shed still caught despite our efforts, as did the duck house.
The results here:
Animals lost- 12 Pekin Ducks
Barns- Horse barn, where the fire started; severely damaged. Hay barn, burned to the ground. Machine shed also. Tractors, power tools and equipment lost in machine shed. Various outbuildings and house, slight damage.
The sheep are in a pen in the high pasture for now. The horses at a neighbors. I have second degree burns on my hand and left butt cheek (don't fight a fire naked).
Ideas on what I did wrong or could have done better?
sw
07-15-2019, 04:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-15-2019, 04:11 PM by heavyhorse.)
Hey I'm really sorry to hear this. Sucks big time. I mean super sucks.
All of what sw said about multiple doors, gates, direct exits. Separate exits for mares, stallions, sheep, cow, humans. So none can bottleneck the others.
I would certainly rebuild in steel. Every building here is, the house is steel clad, with class "A" fire rated shingles. (You can add steel over the outside of existing buildings when you renovate. Not as good as steel alone, but will still slow fire spread a lot).
Have widely separated purpose-built buildings if at all possible, for house, garage, shop, machinery, hay, kennel. Keep mowed between them. Never have electrical in the animal sections of the buildings. Lights in animal sections at least 12 feet up (and a really big stallion can still break a light with his head when he mounts at 10 feet).
Never use heat lamps or gas heaters. Period. Light bulbs are bad enough. LED replacements are better (and wonderfully inexpensive at walmart). If you have to have heat in animal areas, use hot water heat, powered by an electric hot water heater located outside the animal area.
Keep the "hideous flying anuses of pestilence and death" (birds) from packing straw, wool, weeds and trash inside and outside buildings. Put sheet metal shields on top of electrical fixtures to stop litter from falling on them.
Have a "flammables" cabinet outdoors away from the buildings (need not be expensive, an old freezer or refrig works great).
Never keep hay or straw in the barn, even one bale. Have separate hay storage well away. Remember, manure BURNS, don't have it near buildings. Manure, hay, feed, can combust spontaneously if they get wet.
Don't use bedding. Mats are easier to clean and don't burst into flames.
Use lightning protection. If you don't like the idea of spikes sticking up attracting lightning, run heavy gauge utility cable (like #1 or #0 gauge) along the roof ridge and ground to 8 foot ground rods on each end of the building. (My barn has been hit by lightning 3 times that I know of. Fried electrical stuff but no fire). If you have electric fence running to the barn, have 12" of thinner wire outside the barn so it will blow clear outside the building if hit by lightning.
Have a portable generator to power your well pump; you will probably lose electrical power early on. Have a 100' large dia. hose with a pressure nozzle reserved for fire use, keep drained so it won't freeze in winter. Have a hi-flow hydrant at each building. (not the environmentally friendly 2 liter/minute kind).
Personally, I never keep gas in any machinery other than the daily use truck and 4-wheeler, in separate detached garage. (Also helps deter theft if the crooks have to bring their own gas).
Keep trailers clean. Straw and manure yadda yadda yadda....
And it should go without saying: No Smoking, toking, huffing, vaping, charging batteries or devices, becoming drunk or disorderly, by the help or anyone else.
07-15-2019, 04:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-15-2019, 04:32 PM by heavyhorse.)
(EDIT timed out)
Insurance is a major expense but worth it. See that it actually covers what you think it does, don't assume, not all agents or companies are honest (we found out the hard way). Insure what you have to to get up and running again, not every stick you own. Lots cheaper if you bundle.
Animal insurance is not worth it for most purposes (unless you own a syndicated race horse for example). Money can't replace the individuals anyway, and the rates are such that you will pay for the replacement value of animals by the time they reach old age.
REMEMBER HORSES ARE FLAMMABLE! If their hair catches it will smoulder over large areas, quite possibly fatally. Hose them down if possible. Wool goes out by itself. So do cows. Dog hair seems to go out but with so many breed characteristics I make no promises.
Excellent advice, thank you. Thankfully I have never had to worry too much about fire, beyond the normal precautions, no naked flame, cigarettes etc, and precautions around hay/straw storage and manure heaps.
I would suggest a plan that is drawn up and a plan of action in place that you can soft practice as far as able so that you are familiar with the drill in the event of a fire.
Remember fresh cut hay/straw bales can spontaneously due to the heat generated by them so should be stored mindfull
That's awful. I'm sorry that happened to you and your family. This is not something I've thought much about, but it looks like I should. I do keep hay in part of my barn, which also houses (non contained) a donkey, goats and sometimes sheep when they feel like it. Sounds like I need to do some re-thinking about my setup.
I forgot to say, I too am really sorry that it has happened to you and your companions! I was so wrapped up in the post content I forgot my manners and empathy [img]<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/sad.png[/img]/emoticons/ [email protected] 2x" title=":(" width="20" />
I want to say thanks to <a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/profile/1910-heavyhorse/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="1910" href="<___base_url___>/profile/1910-heavyhorse/">@ heavyhorse</a> for the very well detailed and informative reply. Many of those practices mentioned are used here as well, though all-steel buildings aren't. The Horse barn is a combo steel and log building with a slab-wood upper area. The steel & log part still stands. The house and several smaller buildings are log, and lost only portions of porch or roof areas that were slab. Most of these buildings were made from the wood cleared to build them. The hay barn alone was pole and slab, and should have been steel instead. The machine shed actually was steel, with a steel roof, but for one section that extended out from the doors and I foolishly left those doors open giving the fire a clear route. Fuel was stored a good distance away, but there was oil and other flammables in the equipment, and fuel in the tanks. Even steel warps and melts under those circumstances.
We had a very strong wind storm last night, gusts severe enough to send embers building to building over distances that should have been adequate, but weren't. Know your area's weather and it's possibilities before you build. With a bit more research, as I did today, I might not have built as close. The storm was rare, but not unheard of.
On electrical and lighting, everything HH said. I've been switching to led's here over the last 6 months too. My lights in the barn are/ were all high and well protected as well. I also concur with the lightning protection.
You can never not have insurance in my opinion either. We're still in the early stages of trying to figure out the cause of this. The wiring was all fairly new in the horse barn, and no modifications or repairs had been done. The stall areas are undamaged, so not the cause. The cause was somewhere in the upper truss area where limited wiring existed. We have to get the burned and collapsed roof off the lower rafter supports though to inspect any of it.
Thank you for the kind thoughts.
sw
Two biggies: Never, ever locate a hay storage closer than 50 yards to anything else and absolutely never ever try to put hay out. Hay can burn just because it wants to (spontaneous combustion) and all you can do with it once you've put water on it is burn it.
Quote:
5 minutes ago, silverwolf1 said:
The hay barn alone was pole and slab, and should have been steel instead.
Negative. Haybarns are sacrificial. Round bale stack with a tarp is much cheaper and more efficient.
Quote:
9 hours ago, caikgoch said:
Negative. Haybarns are sacrificial. Round bale stack with a tarp is much cheaper and more efficient.
I sell hay, in small bales, and have a huge hay barn a mile up the road. All the horse farms around here use the small bales and are my customers. I agree with the round bales though, where doubling equipment is not adding expense. The hay barn at the farm held my personal use for the year, which will now have to come out of any of my other cuttings that aren't already spoken for. Fields are small around here and mine are good, so folks jump on them quick. I may have to buy hay, which would be ironic. Think I'll rebuild with the private hay-barn on the other side of the lower paddock though...
sw
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