(4/2019) Fire is one of every farm owner's worst nightmares. Barns are full of dry combustible material such as hay and shavings so when they do catch fire, it seems they get out of control very rapidly. Confined animals are frequently hard to extract from the burning building and so the loss of life adds to the devastation of the fire.

While almost every barn I go to bans smoking in the barn, very few have taken any steps to eliminate other causes of fire. Every barn owner should give the barn a look over, at least once a year, and try to decrease fire risks. The fire department is often willing to look at barns and make suggestions to decrease the risk of fire.

Hay that is baled while it is still wet, is a frequent cause of fires. Some hay farmers check the moisture levels in hay before selling it to customers. If the hay is too high in moisture, it is not safe to store it in the barn. When a less meticulous hay farmer puts damp hay in your barn, the hay can suddenly produce a lot of heat and then a fire.

I'm surprised that I visit more farms without fire extinguishers than farms that have them in the barns. While a fire extinguisher won't help once the fire is big, small fires started from the spark of a farrier's forge landing on hay can easily be put out with a fire extinguisher or a nearby water hose. I have one client that won't even allow farriers to hot shoe on her farm after a close call with sparks from the forge. While nothing other than a little hay caught fire, it was enough to scare her.

Electrical fires are a common cause of fire. People tend to be very casual with wiring and electrical appliances. I see heaters, old extension cords with bare and exposed wire, old and dust covered box fans, and other potential fire hazards in barns all the time. Fans with enclosed motors specifically designed for barn use are available at Tractor Supply and other farm supply stores. People still opt for box fans, despite the fire risk, because box fans are so inexpensive. It's not that expensive to get a new extension cord that is good condition yet I still see farm owners using ones that occasionally shock them. Many barns have old and bare wires hanging from the ceilings. If those wires are still connected to the electricity, they can cause fires. When high wattage water tank heaters are plugged into outlets that are not meant to power them, there is a fire risk. While not all fires can be prevented through those steps, some fires can be prevented.

The speed with which a fire can spread is quite surprising. Based on my experiences lighting a woodstove or campfire, I would have expected that it was quite difficult to get a fire burning. It seems like it always takes me an entire box of matches to get the woodstove lit, yet one of my clients kept reiterating to me about how quickly the fire spread when her dryer caught fire. It wasn't the typical lint fire, instead the electrical buttons on the dryer caught fire while she was only 15 feet away. She and her husband used two fire extinguishers and still needed the fire department to come put out the fire. She repeatedly told me how surprised she was that the fire was able to spread considering it was a metal dryer with wet clothes in it. While the laundry room completely burned, at least no one was injured.

One of the best fire systems that I saw in a barn belonged to a man with a small poultry flock. He had about 50 meat chickens in a small barn. Everything was fully automated complete with texts to his phone giving him updates. If it got too hot in the barn, the side curtains would open and the fans would turn on. As the temperature would drop the curtains would close. He also had a fire alarm that detected heat increase. He told me that the traditional smoke detectors would send false alarms due to the amount of dust stirred up by the chickens. Since he already had a commercial poultry watering system in the barn, he explained that it wasn't that difficult to add a sprinkler system to the barn. At the time, I thought his system seemed like overkill. However as I have witnessed numerous fires at clients' farms, I see the wisdom in his system.

Sprinkler systems are not going to be practical for most barns simply due to logistics like keeping the waterlines from freezing and the expense of installing a system. Several of my clients have an electrician do an annual inspection of their electrical system to try and identify potential problems. Another one of my clients turns the power breaker off when she's not in the barn so there is no electricity to start a fire. Turning the power off is not an option for those of us who rely on heated troughs or buckets, but it works for some. A few of my clients have installed smart smoke alarms that text their phone with alerts.

There are companies that will install systems that are specifically designed for barns. The barn environment can be a challenge for traditional smoke alarms. The dust can trigger false alerts and then as more dust accumulates on the detector, it can get so clogged that it can't detect smoke. The professionally installed systems can get expensive so personally, I just purchased a Nest smoke detector that will send alerts to my phone. While it is designed for house use, I'm hoping it works well enough to alert me so I can contact the fire department, or at a minimum, the alarm is loud enough to scare the horses out of the burning barn.

Unfortunately, barn fires are common and often not preventable. We all need to think about fire safety, and what measures we can take to prevent at least some barn fires.