FIRE SUPPRESSION—BEFORE THE FIRE DEPARTMENT ARRIVES
Portable Fire Extinguishers
Fire suppression--the action
taken to extinguish a fire--is often limited in barns because of the high
combustibility level of the contents and because as soon as the fire department
is notified (this should always be the first action taken), evacuation of
animals must proceed if it is not already underway.
Portable fire extinguishers are a must in a barn, but unless the fire is
small and the individual who has caused the fire, or discovered it, is right
on the scene, the use of a portable fire extinguisher is limited. Although
the range and time of effectiveness is relatively short, an extinguisher
may contain the fire until help arrives, so every person who is normally
in the barn should be trained in the correct use of extinguishers. Your
fire department members will be glad to teach you how to correctly use a
fire extinguisher. Make certain everyone who might have to use an extinguisher
receives enough practice that they are comfortable with handling it. A
fire is no place and not the time to learn.
The best extinguishers are those with a steel head. They may be more
expensive to purchase initially than those with plastic heads, but steel-headed
extinguishers may be recharged, so in the long run, they will cost less than
single-use extinguishers.
Extinguishers have to be rated for the type of fires they will be used on. TYPE
A extinguishers are used where cooling is needed, and will put out fires composed of ordinary combustibles (wood,
cloth, paper, rubber, plastics). TYPE B extinguishers are used where oxygen has to be excluded or the flames must be interrupted. TYPE B extinguishers will put out
flammable liquid fires (gasoline, oil, grease, tar, oil-based paint, lacquer,
flammable gases). TYPE C extinguishers must be used where the extinguishing agent cannot be an electrical conductor. That means this is the only type of portable extinguisher that can be used on energized (carrying
current) electrical wiring, fuse boxes, circuit breakers, machinery and appliances. The only exception to this use of TYPE C extinguishers would be the use of a multipurpose extinguisher that is rated ABC.
Locate the extinguishers in plain view near an escape route and at a height
convenient for everyone to reach, and post signs indicating their location. Also
place at least one extinguisher outside the barn because the fire may be
located close to a door which could prevent someone from reaching in for
an extinguisher.
The size of the extinguishers should be determined in part by the physical
size and strength of those expected to use them. A twenty-pound extinguisher
is not suitable for use by many older persons or youngsters. If your
barn is frequented by large numbers of children, it might be a good idea
to ask your fire department's advice on extinguisher size and locations. Extinguishers
should be checked periodically and recharged annually; fire protection companies
will do this for you on an automatic basis.
EXTINGUISHER WARNINGS
- NEVER fight a fire if the fire is spreading or already large.
- NEVER fight a fire if it could spread enough to block your escape route.
- NEVER fight a fire if you haven't been trained how to use a fire extinguisher.
- NEVER fight a fire if you're not sure your extinguisher is the right one for the type of fire.
SPECIAL EXTINGUISHER WARNING!
Your extinguisher must be rated for the type of fire it is
supposed to put out!
Water conducts electricity and will deliver a
possibly lethal shock to the person handling a pressurized water extinguisher
or hose line.
WATER OR TYPE A EXTINGUISHERS
MUST NEVER BE
USED ON AN ELECTRICAL OR GREASE FIRE.
How Much Water do You Have and Where is it Coming From?
Many barn fires start in organic material or wood, so a water supply is critical. That fuel may smolder for awhile before being detected, either by fire detection devices or people, and when that smoldering material reaches oxygen, the fire burns very hot and very fast.
Firefighters often respond to barn fires where the barn was almost completely gone upon their arrival. Here’s the information taken from one run report of a barn fire in Massachusetts in 1990:
| Time of call: | 0357 (3:57 A.M.) |
| Time of arrival: | 0405 (4:05 A.M.) |
| Time of building collapsing: | 0420 (4:20 A.M.) |
| Construction date: | 1970-1973 |
| Structure(s): | 2 horse barns 90 x 100 feet, connected by a 30 40 foot structure, possible breezeway |
| Construction: | Wood with thin aluminum roofing material with ½ inch styrofoam sheet insulation |
| Fire Protection: | Heat detectors and alarmed |
| Damage Estimate: | Unknown. Buildings total loss |
| Fatalities: | 55 horses (Upon arrival of the fire department, the barns were fully involved in fire. Both barns collapsed within 15 minutes). |
Having an adequate water supply
is a real problem on many farms, and what little water might be available
from wells will become inaccessible if electrical power is interrupted since
electricity is required to operate well pumps. Even with a pump, there
might be only ten gallons per minute (gpm) available. A typical fire hose
will be using 100-125 gpm, so unless a fire is very small you are not going
to do much with a garden hose. In fact, fire engineers have given this
example: If a barn has a total hay storage capacity of 1000 bales, the unfrozen
water supply would be 40 gallons for contents and 50 gallons for structure per
bale of total storage, totalling 90,000 gallons storage. Envision a good-sized
swimming pool or pond to get an idea of how much water is needed.
If
an adequate water supply is not available on site, it will have to be trucked
in by fire department water tankers and depending upon how far away the water
is, and how many tankers are available, the water supply and the time taken
to get it, can spell the difference between saving something (possibly
the barn, most definitely other buildings) and total loss.
I
used to advise horse owners about having adequate water supplies so that
if they were on the scene when a fire started and was still small, they could
have a chance to fight it, or at least keep it contained until the fire department
arrived. I don’t do that any more because trying to extinguish a fire on
your own is just too dangerous and uses up valuable time when you could be
evacuating your horses or other occupants of the barn.
I’m a firm believer in sprinkler
systems being installed in every facility where humans or animals live or
work. You
see, all the alerting systems devised won’t do you a bit of good if there
is no one in the barn to start evacuation. Even with the most advanced alerting systems,
too much time is lost from the time the alarm is activated, the alarm is
relayed to the monitoring systems, the monitoring system alerts the local fire department,
and the fire department responds. In that short a time—maybe 15 minutes or
less—your horses could already be dead from smoke inhalation and half the barn may
have burned down. THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP YOUR ANIMALS
ALIVE IS WITH A SPRINKLER SYSTEM.
Firefighter Irv Lichtenstein,
who has more than 27 years in the fire service, reminds us, “No building
with a properly designed, installed and operating sprinkler system has ever
been lost. It is interesting to note that the worst high rise fire in Philadelphia’s
modern history was reportedly extinguished by less than 10 sprinkler heads
opening up when the fire finally reached a sprinklered floor. That was after
it had killed 3 firefighters and destroyed about $150 million of building
that was not sprinklered.”
A Brief Overview of Sprinkler Systems
There are two main types of automatic
sprinkler systems in general use today; the wet-type and the dry-type. The
wet-type of sprinkler system has water in its pipes all the time. A wax
seal or a fusible link in the sprinkler head (purposely made of a metal that
deforms when heated) keeps the water from discharging unless heat generated
by a fire melts the seal or deforms the fusible link. Water is then
dispersed by all sprinkler heads opened by the heat of a fire.
Dry-type systems are more useful
in northern climates where water cannot be maintained in the pipes because
of freezing temperatures. The dry-type system, therefore, operates
on a slightly different principle. Water is maintained not in the pipes,
but in a 250 to 500 gallon tank pressurized with nitrogen gas that's kept
at above-freezing temperatures. The
water is held back by compressed air until the air is released by the opening
of a sprinkler head, allowing the water to flow.
How
well do dry systems work? Well, Paul Sincaglia, P.E., with Hughes Associates,
Inc., one of the world’s leading fire protection engineering and code consulting
firms, sent me this news story: “There was a fire at Philadelphia Park,
outside of Philidelphia last Wednesday (June 20, 2007) in a stable with 25
million dollars worth of horses in it. A cheap box fan hanging in a
stall caught fire from the fan motor. The plastic melted, the burning
fan motor fell off the unit onto the straw on the floor and a fire started. A
sprinkler from the dry system went off putting the fire out before the fire
company got there. One
horse suffered a singed tail and a blister on the back of one leg. That
was the only damage besides the straw on the floor. Not even the stalls
had damage, except for slight charring on one.”
Both
wet and dry sprinkler systems are effective suppression devices and contrary
to commonly-held notions, no person or animal has drowned under the spray
nor panicked as a result of the shower. In a sprinklered dog boarding
facility in Nevada, a fire was quickly extinguished by one or two sprinkler
heads and none of the 40 dogs in the vicinity of the fire were injured, nor
did any suffer from smoke inhalation. And,
although there was some smoke and water damage to the building, all the dogs
were fine, and the damage was so minimal the facility was open for business
later the same day.
It is extremely important, however, that a sprinkler system have an adequate
year-round water supply, and it must be noted that the dog boarding facility
just mentioned was on a municipal water supply. In another example
of needed water supply, it takes 500 gallons per minute to fight a hay fire
of 250 bales. You need
to be sure that your sprinkler system can supply enough water at a high enough
pressure. A minimum of ten thousand gallons should be contained in
unfrozen pond storage for this purpose.
If you don't have a municipal
water supply with hydrants, but you do have a pond on your property, installing
a dry hydrant is a wise decision. A dry hydrant is a water delivery
system that uses six-inch or larger PVC pipe with a standard fire department
connection. One
end, with a strainer attached, is placed in a deep area of the pond that
doesn't freeze in winter. The land end, with the fire department connection,
allows a pumper to hook up to the hydrant and draw water from the pond.
For more information about dry
hydrants, check out the Polk County Office of Emergency Management, out of
Livingston, Texas. They have a fascinating website and an excellent explanation
of dry hydrants by Kenneth F. Hambrick, the Polk County Coordinator. The
address is http://www.pcoem.org.
There’s a link on the home page that will take you to the dry hydrant information.
Two other sources for information are ETT Fire, at http://www.ettfire.com,
and Mainstream Dry Hydrants, at http://www.dryhydrants.com .
You can find even more information by doing a search for dry hydrants.
If you don't have a pond,
but would like to have one constructed, have a dry hydrant installed at the
time of construction. In either case, consult your fire department
and state Department of Natural Resources for requirements, permits, or further
information. If
permits are required, don't start work without them, and be sure to notify
your utility companies before digging. Your fire department will determine
where to place the hydrant so they can easily and quickly gain access to
water to supply their apparatus.
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