A sad day on the farm

[mx842]

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss. It's a life changing event. To this day we measure timeline on things by "before the fire" or "after the fire".

I lost my shop in a fire 12 years ago. I too lost a lot of items that cannot be replaced. My insurance claim totaled $193,000. I was slightly under insured on the building. I was also slightly under insured on a heavily modified Jeep that I lost. All together I left $40K on the table.

With that said, the best part was that I had replacement insurance on the contents. The payback was very, very good. For anyone, I suggest a visit with your agent or a thorough reading of your policies. Replacement insurance is the only way to go.


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Man, that looks bad too so sorry for you too. I'll try to post some pic of mine as well.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

What caused the fire? I’ve always viewed my mostly metal and concrete barn to be quite flame resistant. Though, I do have an extinguisher on the wall just in case

 

[YanmarFever]

Me too, ours is all metal w/steel beams, although its insulated.
I cant imagine all the tractors and equipment burning up like that. I do keep 4 fire extinguishers on the walls.
Maybe I can have ADT add in a smoke alarm that alerts them in case of fire.

 

[mx842]

I thought I might post up a few pics of my fire. look at the third and forth pic, notice the metal beam to the left of that old case the third is a before view of the same beam.

 

[MossRoad]

Boy that's some heat to warp a beam like that.

I appreciate you sharing this most difficult situation. Thanks.

I'm sure there might be a discussion about insurance, planning, inventories, appraisals, etc., for others to think about planning, but maybe not the time or place right now.

Again, thanks and sorry for your losses.

 

[mx842]

Me too, ours is all metal w/steel beams, although its insulated.
I cant imagine all the tractors and equipment burning up like that. I do keep 4 fire extinguishers on the walls.
Maybe I can have ADT add in a smoke alarm that alerts them in case of fire.

I never would have thought in all my years that it would happen. I had 6 fire extinguishers, one in pretty much every room but if you ain't there they are worthless anyway. I wasn't in the building much at all that day because I was hunting. I got home at around 5:30 and unloaded my gear then left to go back to the hunt club for our weekly steak dinner after the hunt. My wife called me at a little after 8 andd told me the building was on fire. I just figured the chimney was on fire but I hauled butt home and when I came around a curve about 11/2 mile away All I could see was a giant glowing black cloud and I knew at that point it would be all gone before it was over.

The fire department got there in about 20 min after they were called but I don't know how long it had been going before my wife called them. When I got there I was looking at that one shot of the firemen shooting into the front door. They ran out of water 2 times before they got a couple more units there with tankers to haul water. I don't know if it would have made any difference if they had plenty of water on hand but it was sad to stand there looking and waiting for more water while the fire was raging. I'm not fussing those guys did a good job with what they had. Another reason to build that pond I wanted but gubment regulations held up that project.

 

[ovrszd]

In your case and mine the fire dept will only keep it from spreading. In my case it was windy, blowing toward my house. They wet my house and kept it from igniting.

The heat created inside my shop melted the aluminum Tcase and trans out of my Dodge truck onto a puddle on the floor. The coil springs on the front completely collapsed. Anything iron and supporting weight failed. Everything wooden was turned to ash. No windows on the upwind side so held in the heat until it breached the roof. A 30ft x 50ft oven.

 

[ovrszd]

What caught your wife's attention?

 

[mx842]

What caught your wife's attention?

I have a border collie that has taken it on herself to be my gardian angle. She hates it when I leave her and I have to put her in the house when I leave because I'm afraid she would follow my truck down the driveway. Once I'm gone my wife will let her out then she will spend the next 1/2 hour looking for me. usually if she can't find me she will lay in the middle of the driveway until I get back. That's where she was when I got home after the hunt waiting fatefully for almost 12 hours for her human to come home.

I wasn't there long before I went back to the hunt club house and the cycle started all over again.
I must have left the back door pulled shut but not completely latched and I think she trailed me to the door and jumped up and pushed the door open. I had a old boom box sitting on my AC freon recovery machine and I think what happened was when she jumped up on and pushed the door open it knocked that radio off and on to the floor where I had sat my 044 Stihl chain saw and a 3 gal can of gas along with a bunch of other stuff I was using the day before. I think when the radio hit the floor it caused a spark and sat either the chain saw or that can of gas on fire. I had an old Poulan super 4400 saw sitting there also and between the three if it did somehow catch fire it would have made a pretty good blaze, enough to get everythin going pretty fast.

Anyway my wife was working and on the phone with her boss and she heard the dog barking like all hell was on fire. She couldn't just throw the phone down because it was some pretty important stuff they were discussing but after about 10 minutes she knew something was wrong and asked her boss if he could hold on for a few minutes so she could check and see what all the fuss was about. When she got to the back door to let her in she wouldn't come in, she just kept barking and running around in circles so my wife went out onto the porch to try and get her and she saw right away what all the fuss was about and called 9/11. At that point she could see fire shooting up from the back of the building and when the fire dept finally got there it was already through the roof in the main part of the building and it was no stopping it then.

If I had of used sheet rock for wall siding rather than OSB board the fire probably wouldn't have spread as fast but this was a shop not a bedroom and it's so easy to knock a hole in sheet rock so I went with OSB board. I did paint the walls with 2 coats of fire resistant barrier coat but that's fire resistant not fire proof. Now I wish I had gone with sheet rock because later on I put metal peg board about 8' high on the main walls all the way around but that's just after thought. It might be something to consider for others that are planing on putting up a pole barn with finished walls inside. I guess I could go a bit farther and add it may not be a bad idea to use metal studs rather than regular 2x4 framing.

I know I will never take it on myself to rebuild and will try to find one of those steel building guys to put up the frame and shell and maybe do some of the finish work myself. Hopefully I can save the main concrete floor that will save a lot. Although I'm sure I have lost all the pex tubing in the floor for heating and that's something I'll miss very much. It was so nice coming into a nice warm building on those cold wet days in the winter. Maybe some of you guys that have used one of those type building contractors could chip in and tell me what kind of luck you had.

 

[ovrszd]

By your account, it wouldn't have mattered what material your building was constructed of. Once the fire was able to generate heat it became perpetual. If parts of the building could be saved, as it appears maybe were, they are unusable. Mine started sometime around midnight. House located about 125ft from the shop. A "thump" awoke me. When I raised my head and looked out the window I noticed the yard had an orange glow. I jumped up and looked out the kitchen window toward the shop. Flames shooting out the windows. Nothing anyone could do was going to change the outcome by then.

How were you able to diagnose the cause so well? In my case we never knew how it started. Dodge diesel pickup, two jeeps, two tractors, two ATVs and a building full of shop stuff. My only suspicious thing was the Dodge truck. All four doors were wide open? Either the heat built up so much it spontaneously exploded the interior and blew the doors open? Or the fire started in the truck and did so? Within a few minutes of thinking about it, we didn't care anymore. Damage was done.

My shop was a finished pole barn, OSB lined interior walls and ceiling. When planning a replacement I wanted something less fire prone. So I bought an all steel building from Vargus Purdun (sp?). We hired a new slab poured. Then constructed the building ourselves. It was 42x50x10. Metal panels on the interior walls and ceiling. Vaulted ceiling, which was nice.

I've since sold that property and now am in a 39x48x14, stud built, metal panel exterior, osb interior walls, metal panel ceiling, heated concrete. I got over the paranoia and built what best suited my needs with no regard to flammability in product choice.

With all that said, if any of my buildings were full of the flammables that were in my old shop and they caught on fire, they too would burn to the ground.

In a shop, your chances of defeating a fire are over in a very short time. For me, the best part of my fire was it's completeness. The Insurance Adjuster drove up to the shop. Got out of his truck introducing myself and shaking my hand. Turned toward the shop with his hands on his waist. "No question here, it's a total loss".

 

[Avenger]

I am so sorry for your loss.

When I was about 9 years old, we lost our shop, an out building (called the pump house), a hay stack, and the hay shed.

I was woken up by my grandfather (who I lived with on the farm) in the wee hours of the morning. He said the hay stack is on fire. We grew alfalfa and had put up the stack a few weeks ago. We did have hand held moisture meters and would test the moisture content from time to time. We stacked the hay using a harrowbed, then an elevator to stack it higher up in the shed, to make more room for the next field getting ready to bale. Anyway, the moisture apparently was too high, and with the dry hot summer... fire.

The haystack caught fire and thus caught the shed on fire. The rural volunteer fire department came out with two trucks. We had plenty of water as there was an irrigation ditch nearby, and we had our main irrigation line about 100yds away. Embers and heat caught the nearby pump house on fire. It was made of wood, housed our well head, but was oversized as a garden shed. We stored a riding lawn mower, seeds, fertilizer, etc in there. On the other side, was the shop and pole barn. This is where we kept our bailers under cover, a few other small implements, but our shop was on the end. It was made from corrugated tin and 2x6s, some insulation. The entire structure went up.

I was blown away that something made of metal would burn. My grandfather said that metal does burn, but at very hot temps. Likely, it was the paint that burned, and caught everything else on fire, that added to the blaze. He was a navy man, served in WW2. I'll never forget when he said "Ever wonder why a ship, made completely of metal, would burn at sea? Its the paint."

We lost our equipment, tools, lathe, milling machine, etc. It was a small shop, but vital to the success of our farm. The loss of the bailers was also detrimental. The insurance company did pay us for the loss of the crop, the structures, and the implements. But we had to wait for months. Which meant lean times and relaying on the help of neighbors to get the alfalfa bailed. We did get a new shop, but the hayshed and pump house were never rebuilt.

They couldn't stop the spread of the fire since the buildings were so close. Maybe if there were more trucks with more firefighters, then it would have turned out different. But you cannot look back and say "what if" only look forward and say "what could I do better?"

Good luck and thank you for sharing!

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Nightmare scenario!! So sorry this happened!! Best of luck as you move forward!

 

[mx842]

By your account, it wouldn't have mattered what material your building was constructed of. Once the fire was able to generate heat it became perpetual. If parts of the building could be saved, as it appears maybe were, they are unusable. Mine started sometime around midnight. House located about 125ft from the shop. A "thump" awoke me. When I raised my head and looked out the window I noticed the yard had an orange glow. I jumped up and looked out the kitchen window toward the shop. Flames shooting out the windows. Nothing anyone could do was going to change the outcome by then.

How were you able to diagnose the cause so well? In my case we never knew how it started. Dodge diesel pickup, two jeeps, two tractors, two ATVs and a building full of shop stuff. My only suspicious thing was the Dodge truck. All four doors were wide open? Either the heat built up so much it spontaneously exploded the interior and blew the doors open? Or the fire started in the truck and did so? Within a few minutes of thinking about it, we didn't care anymore. Damage was done.

My shop was a finished pole barn, OSB lined interior walls and ceiling. When planning a replacement I wanted something less fire prone. So I bought an all steel building from Vargus Purdun (sp?). We hired a new slab poured. Then constructed the building ourselves. It was 42x50x10. Metal panels on the interior walls and ceiling. Vaulted ceiling, which was nice.

I've since sold that property and now am in a 39x48x14, stud built, metal panel exterior, osb interior walls, metal panel ceiling, heated concrete. I got over the paranoia and built what best suited my needs with no regard to flammability in product choice.

With all that said, if any of my buildings were full of the flammables that were in my old shop and they caught on fire, they too would burn to the ground.

In a shop, your chances of defeating a fire are over in a very short time. For me, the best part of my fire was it's completeness. The Insurance Adjuster drove up to the shop. Got out of his truck introducing myself and shaking my hand. Turned toward the shop with his hands on his waist. "No question here, it's a total loss".

Well neither the fire marshall nor the insurance investigator could determind the cause. I threw my idea out to both of them and both blew the thought off. That was my own idea that I came up with so I really don't know for sure. But I'm thinking that is a pretty good guess.
That's funny because my big powder coat oven I had the door closed as they stayed all the time but once the fire was out they were wide open. Most likely pressure on the inside as the fire got hotter just blew them open.

In my case I don't think the fire would have been that hot and massive if it were not for all that OSB. There were right at 6000 sq ft of it on the walls and ceilings everywhere except the main part which only the walls were covered my celing was open where I could store long pieces of material on top of the bottom run of the truss. There is never enough space to pile junk.LOL Once that OSB got going there was no stopping it but I do get total devistation part.

One of the fireman told me they had put 32,000 gal of water on it by 4 AM and there was still no wood left, nothing but charcole, screws, hurricane clips, rafter hangers, and the plates that held the truss together.

 

[ovrszd]

In regards to moving forward. I had to create a contents list. Item name/description, how many, year purchased, purchase cost. I built an excel spreadsheet. Without digging it out, I don't remember how many line items there were. Easily over 1,000.

If you have to do something similar you are going to quickly learn how hard that is to do. I spent many evenings sitting in the recliner with a computer on my lap. Eyes closed, imagining walking in the door and turning right for example. What do I see..... I supplemented this with digging thru the debris. Took almost a month. Later I'd see something on a store shelf and realize I had that but forgot to list it.

My insurance company gave me 24 months to claim and replace items. They allowed me to add forgotten items during that time.

 

[Avenger]

My insurance agent suggested that we keep a running list of our higher priced items in the house, with serial numbers, makes, models, etc. I took her advice, but instead simply take a cell phone video. Every once in a while I'll remember to grab my phone and walk though the house filming everything. I make it a point to capture the tags of things like the TV, firearms, etc. With her permission, I look through my wife's jewelry box and night stand too. We did spring to have her more expensive jewelry and my more expensive firearms covered with their own policy's.

My camera on my cell phone is also synched with the "cloud" so if my phone was to get damaged the photos are recoverable.

Just a thought.

 

[MossRoad]

Jewelry is a whole nother animal. Our insurance company allots a small amount. The rest has to have a written appraisal and a separate jewelry rider (I think it's called).

 

[ovrszd]

Jewelry is a whole nother animal. Our insurance company allots a small amount. The rest has to have a written appraisal and a separate jewelry rider (I think it's called).

My contents insurance capped automotive parts at $500.

It's always a good idea to read the complex fine print of your insurance policy. And I'm not talking about the simple things listed on the renewal notice. I'm talking about the "book" that contains the particulars of a policy.

 

[workinonit]

My worse nightmare. Sorry this happened to you.

 

[mx842]

In regards to moving forward. I had to create a contents list. Item name/description, how many, year purchased, purchase cost. I built an excel spreadsheet. Without digging it out, I don't remember how many line items there were. Easily over 1,000.

If you have to do something similar you are going to quickly learn how hard that is to do. I spent many evenings sitting in the recliner with a computer on my lap. Eyes closed, imagining walking in the door and turning right for example. What do I see..... I supplemented this with digging thru the debris. Took almost a month. Later I'd see something on a store shelf and realize I had that but forgot to list it.

My insurance company gave me 24 months to claim and replace items. They allowed me to add forgotten items during that time.

Yeah I'm having to do the same thing but the lady that's handling my contense part has been a great help. I guess they have done enough claims to know what the basic items are in a shop, building like this. We stayed on the phone for like 4 days adding items to the list. She basically did the same thing as you did we started at the front man door and went in a circle around the room naming things as I went along. I found over $9,000.00 in that little 12x12 entrance room which I used as a drawing room. Then we went out the door into the shop and started right around the wall into my machine shop and so on. We found $82,000.00 in the machine shop and there is some more items to add.

When I planned my shop I wanted everything to have it's own little spot, like plumbing, electrical, HVAC tools, hand tools etc. so I have a pretty good idea where everything is so it will be a little easier to name off stuff. Once I get in there and start digging I can add more stuff as I go along. She has her list broken up in blocks or rooms to make it easier. The way it looks I'll cap out my contense part of the policy but I'll come up short on the building part. On unattched buildings they only give you a percentage of what it would cost to rebuild the main structure/home. Mine caps out at a little over $100,000, 110,000 I think. Some of the stuff I know I will never replace so I should almost break even in the end. That is if everything continues like it's going now. The way she is talking is that I have a full year to add things and get the new building done, or at least purchased and paid for. We'll see how things go.

 

[mx842]

My contents insurance capped automotive parts at $500.

It's always a good idea to read the complex fine print of your insurance policy. And I'm not talking about the simple things listed on the renewal notice. I'm talking about the "book" that contains the particulars of a policy.

Yeah I got wacked pretty good on my motocross race bike. I had enough parts to rebuild two bikes along with with one that was all put together and ready for the track. I had 3 race motors that I had over $2,700.00 each in + what I paid for the base motor to begin with. Then add in all the gear to go along I'll take a 18+ grand loss. They did replace 2 helmets, gloves and some tie down straps though It's hard to get insurance on dirt bikes, 4wheelers and scooters through home owners. She did save me some with my King Quad ATV. She asked me if I ever took it off my property, then added answer wisely: are you sure you don't use it for anything accept for riding fences or going to the mailbox. I asked her why and she said I'll just put down it's a fence runner lets move on. I caught on and said yeah that's all it's used for. I didn't get but $2,500.00 but that was better than nothing. I don't know how that will work when I go to replace it.