This post is in response to the RNews article
http://www.rnews.com/Story_2004.cfm?ID=55944&rnews_story_type=18
A barn fire is something I’m terrified of, especially since I have a less than ideal barn. However, I have taken many steps to insure that my barn will have less of a chance of catching fire than others. Here’s what I did, let me know what fire preventions you have in place.
1. Have a plan! – Make sure that if something does happen that you can react in a calm and cool manor vs. running around like a chicken.
2. Fire extinguishers – make sure they are easy to get to and in key locations.
3. Halters/Leads – always know where your halter and lead ropes are. Better yet, keep a spare set especially for an emergency and never move them.
4. In my case my stalls all have a door that leads directly to the outside. This way should the barn be ablaze I don’t have to worry about finding halter/leads/or entering a burning building. I can open the stall door from the outside and let the horse run out into the pasture directly.
5. Hay storage – for some reason people are obsessed with keeping hay tightly confined in dark enclosed areas. Keeping your hay stored in a location away from your animals is best but if your stock barn doubles as hay storage too, keep this in mind. Hay needs air flow, make sure your storage area can allow your bales to breathe on all sides, use wood pallets to bring it up off the floor, don’t push the bales tight against the wall leave some space and if you can make sure that fresh are can enter the storage area. Don’t forget to pick up those pallets 2x a year and clean out the hay that fell through the cracks.
6. Spider webs! 2x a year clean all of those too. Spider webs burn fast and can spread fires.
7. Proper wiring, we love our lights, headed buckets, heat tape on hydrants and more. Make sure you have an electrician check your wring and keep horses out of reach of anything electrical they can chew on (wires, lights etc). Also, if you have heated water make sure your hot water take is clear of anything flammable. Last time I checked, pilot lights and hay/spider webs don’t mix either.
8. Duh, no smoking!
9. These are just guide lines. The best thing to do is contact your local fire department and have them walk through your barn and make suggestions on how you can improve your fire safety.
What do you do for fire safety in your barn?
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