Tractor starts big fire

[rbarker]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here is a picture of the front of the barns. I'm home now and was just amazed by the huge glow I could see from 5 miles away. When this picture was taken the roof and other tin had fallen on the bales covering a lot of the flames but now it is open and really bright.
Eric )</font>

I am just curious as to why I only see one fire engine and no suppression efforts in this picture. Is this the type of fire that you just have to let burn out by itself? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[chim]

I used to run with our volunteer FD. Sometimes when we arrived at a barn fire and it was obvious there was no hope of saving anything, our total efforts were to keep the fire from spreading. We always sprayed some water on the barn, because we were told that in order for the insurance company to pay the claim, some effort had to be made to put the fire out (could have been urban legend?). The best thing we could do was let it burn to minimize cleanup.......................chiim

 

[GregJ]

I was our volunteer fire chief for several years and letting that fire burn out is definitely the right thing to do for several reasons. First, there will be nothing salvageable left in that barn. It will make cleanup much easier because of less debris. From a strategic perspective, I am sure that area does not have hydrants, so all the water must be trucked in. To extinguish a fire that large would take several thousand gallons of water. By keeping the water on the trucks, they are ready to extinguish any spot fires that may come up around the area, plus in the event of another fire call, they are ready to roll. I was always relunctant to tie up my equipment in a useless effort knowing that it would be just my luck to get another call and not be ready for it.

Interesting post and thanks for the pics.

Greg

 

[40Kchicks]

You guys are absolutely right on. Before moving to the farm I too was a firefighter. Letting it burn will only help the clean up at this point. At first they had apparatus from the neighboring three towns there but shortly afterwards they just left one old engine and had a supporting tender working together.
Eric

 

[tc35dforme]

<font color="blue">To extinguish a fire that large would take several thousand gallons of water. </font>

Did you mean several hundred thousand gallons ???

We had an old mill building burn here a few years back...over 30 fire tankers ( 800 gallon - smallest to 5000 gallon - largest ) rolling for 10 1/2 hours. I never heard the final number, but some of those trucks made 40 trips !!!

I pumped 1250 GPM continuously for 10 1/2 hours !!!

 

[5030]

tc35dforme:

I guess you folks have never been around a hay or straw fore. You cannot put it out. I don't care how much water you put on it, it will smolder underneath. You really have to bring in heavy equipment (bulldozers) and spread it out. It's better to just let it burn itself out and put up with the stink!!

On ocassion, I will roast a round bale that's gotten moldy. When I burned one this spring, I lit it off and it rained for 3 days afterward. About a day later, it was going again.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Daryl for a while I was with a VFD and they had a hay barn that had collapsed the year before. It had a couple tractors in the back in a lean to. they think it was an electrical fire but the ather fire fighters kept rnnin in and out, They got made because i quit and took my Ford hoe keys and got the 400 ford to start and drug the other tractors and abaler to safety. Needless to say they wasted 5000 gallons of water trying to wet a wade of moldy hay down. You couldnt have given me a enough money to go in there under that burning hay loft like that.
My friend that does a bit of custom haying had a hay wagon stollen but on the trip the thieves had thrown a cigarette out of the window of the truck and landed on the fron tof the trailer. They were headed to Tennesee and had gotten past my house and down the highway and on the otherside of town when they notices the flames. THe thing when they got to where they could pull over it was too hot to unhitch the wagon and they got to watch a new dodge ram cook down over a 200 dollar cut down cotton/hay wagon and 200 dollars worth of hay. I took my hoe out there and had to spread the hay out, evertime the sity thought it was out it would relight on the unbrnt hay centers. I stayed all day spreading till i was out.

 

[tc35dforme]

<font color="blue"> I guess you folks have never been around a hay or straw fore. You cannot put it out. I don't care how much water you put on it, it will smolder underneath. You really have to bring in heavy equipment (bulldozers) and spread it out. It's better to just let it burn itself out and put up with the stink!!</font>

I have, and I agree, but in our area and in most of New England, barns are attached to or pretty close ( feet away ) from residences. Every barn fire ( hay ) that I've responded to has had attached or adjacent structures in immediate peril. We just don't see the barns in the middle of a field or set away from the residence like what I see in those photos.

Since some of our barns are more than 150 years old and framed completely with heavy timber, we need a rapid supply of a great deal of water, personnel, and yes heavy equipment to stop the spread. We rarely go too long before the excavator arrives.

I've seen an excavator operator wearing an SCBA ( air mask ) while tearing away structure and burning bales. Nothing like the smell of dropping burning bales into a flooded manure pit !!!

Fortunately, most of our bales are small rectangular or < 5' round. We don't see those big rectangular ones much around here.

 

[rbarker]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( You guys are absolutely right on. Before moving to the farm I too was a firefighter. Letting it burn will only help the clean up at this point. )</font>

Thanks! I learn something new every day! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif