Barn fires are a major distress for farmers. It’s terrible when livestock, swine, horses, poultry, whatever, are inside a building when it goes up in flames. Along with the sizeable financial loss, farm operation losses include equipment, business interruption, loss of production and extreme stress on the farm family. The emotional toll and financial impact can be felt for years.
Many barn fires are caused by electrical deterioration: Breaker/fuse panels/deteriorated, loose connections, extension cords and power bars used instead of properly installed permanent wiring.
The insurance industry and the Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) have investigated the challenges with electrical systems. The corrosive environment found inside barns has been determined to be the leading cause of degradation or failure of electrical equipment. The degradation is typically corrosion of the exposed metal components (i.e., wires, connections, etc.).
To prevent barn fires farmers need to focus on good housekeeping in and around the barn. Over the years I’ve seen so much carelessness and stupidity in barns that it was a wonder that some barns didn’t burn down.
Back in the early 1970s, my father and I bought newborn bull calves from a few local farmers. We’d raise them as steers and sold them at two years of age. One farm where we bought calves, massive cobwebs were hanging down from the ceiling. The farmer had extension cords criss-crossing the floor and heat lamps above the young calves. It was a scary sight for my father and I as we never used heat lamps in our barn and we didn’t use extension cords. Our block barn was warm enough from the 40 dairy cows we kept.
The heat lamp could burst and fall onto the dry straw. It has happened, causing barns to burn down with livestock inside. The extension cords could heat and cause a fire. Fire could spread fast with all the cobwebs. His housekeeping was terrible and I’m sure he didn’t broom away the awful cobwebs. He milked for another 25 years and it was amazing he never had a barn fire.
Another farmer I knew used a gas-powered straw chopper to blow chopped straw under the cows after he cleaned out the gutter. He would put a small square bale into this machine and walk with it behind the cows blowing straw and dust. The barn would be so dusty you couldn’t see from the dust everywhere. If a small stone was in the bale of straw, the grinding knives or the blower could cause a spark and a fire.
When I was a boy I was around threshing mills. That was a fire hazard with so many bearings and moving parts all covered in dry chaff and straw. If a bearing got hot it could start a fire. But I never witnessed one.
Before stable funding came into place in 1994, Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) directors on local boards would accompany the OFA field representative for an afternoon visiting farmers and try to pick up new memberships. I enjoyed the outings and got to see the inside of farm buildings, barns and homes.
I was also on the local board of the United Co-operatives of Ontario (UCO) and I sometimes travelled with a UCO director trying to sell UCO memberships. I saw a lot of sloppy housekeeping in barns and sheds. Running long extension cords from the house or a barn to a shed, where laying hens were kept, was a common sight because there was no electricity in the henhouse.
When the Renfrew County Federation of Agriculture, the Renfrew County Beef and the County Soil and Crop sponsored the free breakfast at the Cobden Agricultural Hall the last Thursday in March, one of the speakers was Admaston-Bromley Township Fire Chief Bill McHale.
Chief McHale had a check list of 10 items for barn fire prevention. The chief must have seen the same dangerous and messy things as I did 40 and 50 years ago. The first item on his list was to focus on housekeeping. He told the 50 farmers in attendance about some of the bad things he’d seen on farms in the many years he was a firefighter and how to prevent barn fires.
1. Focus on housekeeping
2. Beware of temporary electrical equipment (often stays permanent)
3. Inspect, maintain permanent electrical systems
4. Perform hotworks safely (conduct cutting and welding projects away from combustible material)
5. Participate in risk reduction
6. Prepare and implement a Fire Safety Plan. Failing to make a plan is planning to fail.
7. Inspect and maintain fire walls
8. Maintain heaters
9. Store and maintain motorized equipment away from livestock
10. Store combustibles in a designated location
There you have it folks. Get an electrician in to update your wiring and get rid of those extension cords and power bars.