A sad day on the farm

[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.