BARN FIRE!

[Stonewall]

11/6/'02, 04:58 Toned out of bed - Barn Fire at xxxx less than one mile from my house. Thanks to the neighbors being up with their dog and smelling something "not right" we got there in time to do something about it. Saved the structure and minimal property loss. The cause? Electric stock tank heater in a poly tank with little or no water. It was on a timer and with nothing to dissipate the heat it melted a hole in the tank and set the floor on fire. Not sure if the heater was faulty or if this was a foregone conclusion with the tank out of water. Inside walls were lined with metal "pro panel" and that kept it out of the framing but the green alfalfa hay took a beating. Lots of overhaul, hauling out partialy burned bales and soaking them down with foam. I HAVE to wash my gear now!

Thought this would go along with the post on Fire Retardent Coatings and sprinkler systems in a barn with a residense in the loft. "The little electric heater" stikes again. I thought Hose Jockey would enjoy reading this too and I had to get up anyway.

 

[Soundguy]

Yikes.. After eading this, I went out to chek my tank heater.

Mine is a plastic 'safe' heater, and cuts off via thermastat. I feel a little better now...

Soundguy

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>Mine is a plastic 'safe' heater, and cuts off via thermastat. </font color=blue>
Until the thermostat fails...../w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

 

[Stonewall]

It is hard to say what type of heater this was exactly. The only recognizable part left was the element. It looked like a "Bow Tie" about 18" on the long axis. The fact that it was controled by a timer makes me think it did not have any type of thermostat but who knows?

 

[hosejockey2002]

That all sounds like real work. I'm a city boy, so I don't see much in the way of barn fires. There's probably a dozen barns in our entire fire district, so I'm not likely to. At least you guys had the class A foam to overhaul the hay bales. One thing about barn fires, it seems they are almost always preventable!

 

[Stonewall]

You're right on both counts for a lot of work and preventable fires. We have had 4 barns burn in our district in the last two years and all of them due to some minor oversight that if rectified could have prevented the whole thing. Fortunately we haven't suffered any injuries or loss of life (animal or human) and I hope it stays that way.

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

Heating elements staying on and causing water to boil out is a big problem not only in barns, but in industrial applications. I can recall a fire we paid $10 million at a gold refinery. They used a plating operation to bring the gold from 90% to 99% purity. The operation was in a safe, well kind of, if you call a room that is 10,000 sq. ft. a safe! Well anyway, the plant manger pulls into the plant and notices black smoke pouring out of the stack, knows this is a problem. Goes to security and asks what is going on?? Security guard tells him, the heat detector keeps going off and will not reset. Manager asked did you call the fire department, guard says NO! They go to the room, the vault door is closed and locked, they feel the door, it is HOT to the touch! The other manager who lives 2 hours away needs to be present, as two people are required to open the door with different combinations. They call the fire department, when you tell the fire department you have a fire in your building, they want to get in! Well they tried to bang, cut, pound, etc. etc., and do about everything to get in, with no luck. To make a long story short, they did not get in until the second manager showed up with the combination. Buy then, the only thing left of the room was a pile of melted fiberglass tanks with gold!

Good solution to the problem is to have a second , separate high temperature probe to turn off the heating element and or a separate low water cut off. If you want more detail information let me know via private e-mail .

My 2 cents

Tom