Tractor starts big fire

[40Kchicks]

I'm at work today but my daughter just called telling me that my neighbors place was on fire. My neighbor has 14 huge barns on his place. Two of them sit next to each other and are used for storing hay. They are 60’ X 320’ each. I don’t have the whole story yet but apparently the old tractor he was using to cut grass burst into flames. His son was driving the other tractor mowing between the barns at the time so he ran over and told his son to get out of there then ran into the warehouse and told the workers to call 911. The tractor caught the dry hay on fire before the fire department could get there. Both barns were totally involved when my wife called me. The fire department was just containing the fire and protecting a nearby warehouse. I guess that the fire department had to sit Mac down. The heat was so intense it melted some shutters on his chicken barns 80’ away and warmed up my chicken barn that’s 150’ away. I had my wife get photos so I will update this post tomorrow.

Eric

 

[40Kchicks]

Here is a picture of the front of the barns. I'm home now and was just amazed by the huge glow I could see from 5 miles away. When this picture was taken the roof and other tin had fallen on the bales covering a lot of the flames but now it is open and really bright.
Eric

 

[40Kchicks]

Re: Tractor starts big fire *DELETED*

Post deleted by 40Kchicks

 

[Junkman]

one more try..... you only have the top half of the picture.. also, you can click on "edit" in the original post and then click on "preview" and add your picture to the original post if the edit time hasn't expired.... usually about a couple of hours later.

 

[40Kchicks]

Looking down from the back porch.

 

[Junkman]

That certainly is a shame to loose two barns.... luckily no one was hurt and buildings can always be replaced. Lives can't. I am certain that all the neighbors will pitch in and help him through this disaster with food for the animals till he can get back on his feet.

 

[40Kchicks]

The warped, now gone sheet metal. The building still is retaining the square shape of the bails inside.

 

[5030]

40Chicks:

I hope you live upwind from the conflagration. Burning hay really stinks. Besides, it will burn for a long time, probably at least a week.

Once it starts, there is no way to put it out. Just try to keep it from spreading.

 

[40Kchicks]

I talked to my neighbor last night and told him how happy I was to see him. He had set up his old ford with the mower and he and his son were going to knock down the weeds around the barns. It was a gas tractor and it must have had a leak in the fuel line because all of a sudden flames just came up from under the steering wheel. He jumped off and yelled to his son to get out of there because he had just filled the tractor up with fuel. He ran over to warehouse. One worker called 911 and the other grabbed a fire extinguisher but by the time they got back which was only a minute or so, flames were up in the rafters. It only took 15 minutes for every part of the barns to be on fire. Last night I could see one side of the tractor and the big burnt out rim under the burning hay.

The hay was being stored for export to Asia. It is insured and valued at about 50K. He was using the back of the barn as cow shelter and the side of the barn was part of the fence. I’ll probably help him put up a new line of fencing when the fire is out.

Eric

 

[40Kchicks]

Daryl
So far the wind has been fine. Mac was telling me that the barn had some tar vapor barrier and Styrofoam insulation in it. When that went up it really filled the sky with thick black smoke.

Last night was like the living next to the school with the football game letting out. It seemed like everyone from the local town was cruising by. At times it was a solid line of cars.

Eric

 

[rbarker]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here is a picture of the front of the barns. I'm home now and was just amazed by the huge glow I could see from 5 miles away. When this picture was taken the roof and other tin had fallen on the bales covering a lot of the flames but now it is open and really bright.
Eric )</font>

I am just curious as to why I only see one fire engine and no suppression efforts in this picture. Is this the type of fire that you just have to let burn out by itself? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[chim]

I used to run with our volunteer FD. Sometimes when we arrived at a barn fire and it was obvious there was no hope of saving anything, our total efforts were to keep the fire from spreading. We always sprayed some water on the barn, because we were told that in order for the insurance company to pay the claim, some effort had to be made to put the fire out (could have been urban legend?). The best thing we could do was let it burn to minimize cleanup.......................chiim

 

[GregJ]

I was our volunteer fire chief for several years and letting that fire burn out is definitely the right thing to do for several reasons. First, there will be nothing salvageable left in that barn. It will make cleanup much easier because of less debris. From a strategic perspective, I am sure that area does not have hydrants, so all the water must be trucked in. To extinguish a fire that large would take several thousand gallons of water. By keeping the water on the trucks, they are ready to extinguish any spot fires that may come up around the area, plus in the event of another fire call, they are ready to roll. I was always relunctant to tie up my equipment in a useless effort knowing that it would be just my luck to get another call and not be ready for it.

Interesting post and thanks for the pics.

Greg

 

[40Kchicks]

You guys are absolutely right on. Before moving to the farm I too was a firefighter. Letting it burn will only help the clean up at this point. At first they had apparatus from the neighboring three towns there but shortly afterwards they just left one old engine and had a supporting tender working together.
Eric

 

[tc35dforme]

<font color="blue">To extinguish a fire that large would take several thousand gallons of water. </font>

Did you mean several hundred thousand gallons ???

We had an old mill building burn here a few years back...over 30 fire tankers ( 800 gallon - smallest to 5000 gallon - largest ) rolling for 10 1/2 hours. I never heard the final number, but some of those trucks made 40 trips !!!

I pumped 1250 GPM continuously for 10 1/2 hours !!!

 

[5030]

tc35dforme:

I guess you folks have never been around a hay or straw fore. You cannot put it out. I don't care how much water you put on it, it will smolder underneath. You really have to bring in heavy equipment (bulldozers) and spread it out. It's better to just let it burn itself out and put up with the stink!!

On ocassion, I will roast a round bale that's gotten moldy. When I burned one this spring, I lit it off and it rained for 3 days afterward. About a day later, it was going again.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Daryl for a while I was with a VFD and they had a hay barn that had collapsed the year before. It had a couple tractors in the back in a lean to. they think it was an electrical fire but the ather fire fighters kept rnnin in and out, They got made because i quit and took my Ford hoe keys and got the 400 ford to start and drug the other tractors and abaler to safety. Needless to say they wasted 5000 gallons of water trying to wet a wade of moldy hay down. You couldnt have given me a enough money to go in there under that burning hay loft like that.
My friend that does a bit of custom haying had a hay wagon stollen but on the trip the thieves had thrown a cigarette out of the window of the truck and landed on the fron tof the trailer. They were headed to Tennesee and had gotten past my house and down the highway and on the otherside of town when they notices the flames. THe thing when they got to where they could pull over it was too hot to unhitch the wagon and they got to watch a new dodge ram cook down over a 200 dollar cut down cotton/hay wagon and 200 dollars worth of hay. I took my hoe out there and had to spread the hay out, evertime the sity thought it was out it would relight on the unbrnt hay centers. I stayed all day spreading till i was out.

 

[tc35dforme]

<font color="blue"> I guess you folks have never been around a hay or straw fore. You cannot put it out. I don't care how much water you put on it, it will smolder underneath. You really have to bring in heavy equipment (bulldozers) and spread it out. It's better to just let it burn itself out and put up with the stink!!</font>

I have, and I agree, but in our area and in most of New England, barns are attached to or pretty close ( feet away ) from residences. Every barn fire ( hay ) that I've responded to has had attached or adjacent structures in immediate peril. We just don't see the barns in the middle of a field or set away from the residence like what I see in those photos.

Since some of our barns are more than 150 years old and framed completely with heavy timber, we need a rapid supply of a great deal of water, personnel, and yes heavy equipment to stop the spread. We rarely go too long before the excavator arrives.

I've seen an excavator operator wearing an SCBA ( air mask ) while tearing away structure and burning bales. Nothing like the smell of dropping burning bales into a flooded manure pit !!!

Fortunately, most of our bales are small rectangular or < 5' round. We don't see those big rectangular ones much around here.

 

[rbarker]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( You guys are absolutely right on. Before moving to the farm I too was a firefighter. Letting it burn will only help the clean up at this point. )</font>

Thanks! I learn something new every day! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif