Ronbo,
If I need to evacuate, for me, the tractor will go into the gel/foamed garage or shop. In fact I'll put the sailboat, motorcycle and other car & truck we can't drive off into protected buildings. I'm going to check this strategy with my local fire chief at my soonest opportunity but Dave, the Barricade dealer, agreed with me. Before I had the home foam protection resource I was going to leave them in the biggest clear spot I've got, our smallish lawn. But storing in the foam treated buildings has several benefits.
When fireman arrive and see the efforts we have gone through to protect our property and buildings they will give us better attention than say, someone that has done little or no protection and no amount of effort on their part would save that building. Secondly a well prepared and foam protected building is just as likely, or more likely, to survive a wild land fire than the tractor out in the open that is standing naked to the heat and firebrands. Thirdly the tractor out in the open causes the firemen to pay attention to it in addition to the structures and possibly divert resources from the structure should the tractor become threatening.
Of course there is the down side that should the shop get fully involved the tractor would add significantly to the volume of hazardous materials stored there. At that point though, with acetylene tank, paints, solvents, lubricants and an abundance of other flammable stuff the shop is a goner anyway.
Another option is to put them all on the lawn area and gel foam them. Yes, you can use Barricade foam on vehicles. Right now it would take a couple more gallons more foam than I have.
Hotwheels,
The drive to Placerville was worth it for the hour I got discussing fire protection strategies and options with Dave. I left with a Barricade home protection kit, an additional case of Barricade, a class A "Foam-Fast" kit w/optional 9gpm nozzle and a fitting I needed to tap my home hydrant system into the municipal hydrant at my property corner. I'm also adding an ebay 2.5in wye at the hydrant so I don't shut them out (and [hope] they don't shut me off). I also left thinking I should also be taking yet another case of Barricade and that cute little Honda booster pump he showed me. This is getting similar to owning a tractor...always something else that you "need".
Dave also recommended running a gallon of the Barricade for stock over three years. I questioned why a gallon and he said I wouldn't want to store a possible contaminated a partial gallon thinking it was good. Easy for him to justify...but I'm too cheap. I'll try transferring a quart into an empty container and draft out of that. The opened container will be my "test" batch for the next years and I'll mark it to use last should I ever need to deploy all the foam. He also recommended practicing to see pressures, coverage, method of application, etc. Good idea but again, at $60 a pop, I'll use a partial gallon.
I'm revising my ten and thirty minute evac procedures to include getting the Barricade and "A" foam units to the driveway so the firemen can use them. My time for attempting application myself doesn't occur until I have over 30 minutes. It's my prime effort on my two hour list while wife attends to other exposures.
Thanks for the invite, I don't get that way often. If I need to call on Dave again I'll certainly get in touch.
