Can we talk about barn fire safety?

[LookmaNohands]

[QUOTE=SLW;7945640]
Ugh about finding someone who will do the work and do it nicely. A girlfriend just had a hayloft with stairs added over her 4 stalls and I know she was pleased with the results in both time frame and quality of work. I saw it and it was very nice. I will get the guys name and maybe it’s someone you haven’t contacted before.

You have a pond don’t you?? I know a lot of people count on their ponds to be used in fire fighting- whether it is with their own pump and hoses or refilling a tanker truck.

Like you, I enjoy finding the perfect arrangement for my horses here at home. As a concession to the extreme cold I did put a stable blanket under the turnout blanket on my trace clipped hunting horse. The donkey didn’t technically need to be blanketed but she is so darn cute tucked into (and kinda hanging out of) a size 56 blanket while waiting for the size 61 to arrive. More hay rations are being consumed so I know they are weathering the extreme weather perfectly.[/QUOTE]

If you want the pond to be used for water, I think the fire department needs a place where it can pull up the tanker (or whatever) to the pond and then a hook-up to draw the water out of the pond. This is something you need to discuss with the fire department ahead of time.

[MSP]

I have two doors on every stall (only 3 stall barn shed row style) and I very rarely close my horses in. I find in real cold temps they prefer to huddle together in one stall. The barn is insured, my horses are free to leave it and I don’t keep flammables in it.

It made it to 17 this am and that is cold for the Deep South. No blankets and not shut in, just plenty of hay and freedom to do what they want.

A friend had a center isle barn and fenced all the way around and the stall doors were left open. It worked very well for her. Horses knew their stalls for feed time and after would do as mine and roam or stand together. I say don’t lock them in if you can set up your barn like this.

Forgot to add I have been through two barn fires. First one was when a friend and I were starting a boarding barn on leased property. Old dairy barn that we were erecting stalls in. Only two horses in it at the time. One was shut in a stall and the other I put in the one stall that had attached turn out with door open. Fire was over night, shut in horse died and the other survived. The firefighters said they found the mare pressed up against the fence trying to get far away from the fire. She did not run into the barn.

I moved her across the street to another barn and two weeks later that barn caught on fire from a spark from the tractor hitting shavings. There must have been around 20 horses in that barn and I think only two were able to be rescued. The Owner was burned getting second horse out in mid day. The little mare I put in that barn did not make it.

I no longer shut horses in barns!

[owlbynite]

[QUOTE=trubandloki;7943910]
??[/QUOTE]What don’t you understand? In extreme cold, we’d double-blanket, close both top and bottom stall doors and never used space heaters. All survived & thrived.

[Finzean]

I realize not everyone has the luxury of making these decisions…BUT…

We don’t use our stalls unless absolutely necessary. Our horses live out with run in sheds that can have 12’ gates hung across the front if we need to close them in out there. There is no power run to the sheds and we keep them bedded. I have geriatrics who do feel the effects of the weather but for those old, creaky critters the mobility offered by the run-in sheds is a plus. Rug 'em up and let them be happy outside. My show horse lives at the trainer’s fabulous facility…he stays out almost ALL the time. She has shelters in the pastures but they have no sides (to prevent anyone from getting cornered by turn out buddies) so when we had single digit temps w/- wind chills this past week, my boy was in the main barn…which is as safe as something could be…but I didn’t sleep well.

I’m a HUGE fan of run ins that can be closed up if needed - and that is where we spent our money instead of exterior doors With the number of other buildings near our barn and the fact that the rule seems to be horses seeking safety in their stalls, I feel better with them out and able to choose for themselves about being in or out. Good luck whatever course you take.

[MSP]

Just saw this! http://cs.thehorse.com/blogs/horse-911-whats-your-emergency/archive/2015/01/12/six-ways-to-better-prevent-and-respond-to-barn-fires.aspx

We put together these six best ways to design, manage, and build a barn for prevention of barn fires, and be able to better respond and remove horses (in the 3 to 5 minutes before the fire department even shows up). The published article is available for download by your AAEP member veterinarian, or by request to me personally at delphiacres@hotmail.com.

1. Every human house, public building, and restaurant has at least two exits from every structure. This is dictated by the NFPA’s (National Fire Protection Association’s Life Safety Codes and Standards). Why don’t horses have stall doors to the outside wall as well as the inside one? This should be standardized by all barn designers, giving any responder on scene (even without fire fighting gear) a chance to remove a horse from its stall without running into the dangerous inside aisleway (which always collapse into the center under fire conditions). It is even better to have a small paddock on the outside, so that the horse can be let out and haltered and led away from the barn. It’s even better to have a run-out lane so that all horses let out of their outside doors can be chased down a laneway to a pasture away from the barn, and then the gate shut to prevent them from returning.

2. Barn and horse facility designers and builders should consult NFPA 150 Standard on Animal Housing for best practice guidelines on how to improve electrical services, separate combustibles and flammables, and include appropriate use of firewalls and fire curtains to prevent fast movement of fire and smoke, use of advanced detection and alarm systems for smoke, flame and carbon monoxide, the use of installed sprinkler systems, etc.The firefighting community has made excellent suggestions for best practices for facilities of all sizes to reduce the occurrence of fire, and to minimize effects if it does occur. Does your barn builder, architect or designer know about this document?

3. Minimize the obstacles in the aisleways. Tack boxes, hay bales, wheelbarrows, and tools laying in the aisle makes it harder for firefighters to enter the aisleway and actually reach the horses in a real response. If they trip over your obstacles, they will probably refuse to enter the barn further because safety for the humans is paramount over your horse victims. Make it easy for firefighters to access and put access aisles at least every 50 feet through the barn. If they have to go more than 120 feet to get to the other end, firefighters will be reluctant to enter even in firefighting gear. The ability to egress is important.

4. Minimize the fuel load in the barn. From a firefigher’s perspective, everything inside a barn is combustible fuel – from the shavings and hay to the rubber mats. Storage of hay and straw above the horses in the same space as the horses is something that was done hundreds of years ago – they didn’t know better. Today, we know from hundreds of tragic fires that it’s foolish to increase the amount of fuel in a barn – fuel will only compound an incipient fire and speed its spread. Does your barn have hay above the horses? Make sure your barn owner knows how dangerous it is, and ask them to put it in a separate building at least 50 feet away from the horse facility.<

5. Make sure you have increased the chances of the firefighters finding your barn. Do you have a big reflective sign with the number on it out front? Can they get through your gate and down your driveway, then around the barn (preferably on gravel or asphalt?) Do you have fire extinguishers in place and hose systems hooked up at all times to attempt to put out the flames until the fire department arrives? Do you have a pond or standpipe hydrant that they can use for water? So many people that we talk to after fires tell us that the firefighters couldn’t access their property, couldn’t get to the barn, or didn’t have enough water available to fight the fire. This requires preplanning with your local fire department officials. Invite them to your property and ask them to conduct a full pre-lanning tour to discuss ways that you can improve fire safety and response to your property.

Make a plan and practice your plan. Start from the middle of your driveway and see how long it really takes to get to the barn, get the horses haltered, led to a safe paddock or ring, released, the gate closed, and then return to get the rest. It usually takes a lot longer than you think, and with a three- to five-minute window of time from flame ignition, it can be a sobering experience. Make improvements as you practice until you can perform this challenging task in less than 5 minutes.

• See more at: http://cs.thehorse.com/blogs/horse-911-whats-your-emergency/archive/2015/01/12/six-ways-to-better-prevent-and-respond-to-barn-fires.aspx#sthash.msGltBhq.dpuf

[SCM1959]

I was just getting ready to post the same thing, MSP. For those who would like the link:

http://cs.thehorse.com/blogs/horse-911-whats-your-emergency/archive/2015/01/12/six-ways-to-better-prevent-and-respond-to-barn-fires.aspx