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".