SAFE HAY STORAGE
Unless you’ve been inundated with rain at all the
wrong times for cutting and baling hay, like we’ve been here in northeastern
Ohio, you’re probably storing first-cutting hay. Last year we missed
out on a “first” cutting because of rain, and when it was time for second
cutting our hay man delivered the first load then his baler broke down. By
the time he got it fixed it was raining again and our hay delivery got pushed
back from July to August. The hay finally came on a 90 degree day. It
was such a joy to work all day at the fire station, then come home, change
from my fire department uniform to my “hay unloading and stacking” uniform
(you know—jeans and long-sleeved shirt so that you don’t get scratched, but
just right for bits of hay to become sweat-glued between your body and your
shirt). Then, by the time I realized how starving I was, since I hadn’t eaten
anything since lunchtime, I was too tired to lift even a plastic fork.
However, much as we love our horses and we accept with at least a minimum of enthusiasm the sacrifices
we make for their comfort and well-being,
let’s take a serious look at hay storage from a fire safety viewpoint. First,
let’s consider where you’re going to stack your newly-delivered hay.
A separate
hay storage building should be constructed if at all possible, but of course,
that’s the ideal situation. You may choose to have upper level hay
storage if you are building a barn, or feel you are “stuck with it” if the
barn already exists, but there are ways to help make these arrangements less
of a hazard.
Upper-level
hay storage with a solid floor, such as in a bank barn converted from dairy operations
to horse barn, is preferable to stall-level storage because heat, smoke, and flame
move upward. Should a fire begin on the upper level, upward movement of the
fire and its products will allow a few more minutes for evacuation of horses from
the lower level.
A horse owner wrote in an internet group, “I heard someone describe classic
haylofts as being an equivalent to a gas tank, in that if your barn catches
on fire, the air is trapped in that space and the dry hay/bags of shavings,
etc. which are fuel to the fire can cause the building to explode.”
My reply was, “As for haylofts, there are several
schools of thought, but the important point here is to get well-cured hay
and to keep loose hay swept up. The best barn I ever had was constructed
of concrete block on the main (first floor) level with the second floor (hayloft)
completely closed off from the lower level. There were hay drops for
each stall and each hay drop had a hinged cover that was kept closed except
when hay flakes were dropped into each stall. The stairway to the hayloft
was in the tack room.
“Unless there is a strong draft directing flame
into another pattern, fire burns up because hot gases and flames are lighter
than air. If
hay in a loft that’s closed off to the lower level burns, it will burn through
the roof first. Also—regarding classic haylofts being like a gas tank—not
true. The only time that might be possible is if a barn has a slate
roof which would take some time to fail. Barns with metal or tin sheet
roofs, asphalt shingles over wood, or plastic skylight panels, will be breached
by the fire allowing hot gases and flames to vent. The explosion that
your informant may be referring to is a flashover. This occurs when
flammables in an enclosed area reach their ignition temperatures and flame
breaks out over the whole surface at once. This is different than a
backdraft, which is what happens when oxygen is introduced into an unventilated
area resulting in an explosion of heated gases. That's one reason why
all barn roofs should have a means of ventilation such as a cupola or regular
roof vents.”
If hay is stored at stall-level, the area must
be completely separated from the stalls and enclosed in a room with two-hour
fire-resistant roofing and wall materials. This isn’t a practical solution
to begin with unless you are purchasing and storing hay for only two or three
horses and you purchase hay frequently. In reality, though, no one wants
to be lugging hay bales a distance of 100 feet from one building to another
on a daily basis, so many people keep a day or two’s supply of hay near the
stalls in their barn. That’s not ideal, but it is kind of practical
when you consider the labor involved in caring for horses on a day-to-day
basis.
But let’s say you’re in the fortunate situation
of building a separate hay barn; your first consideration must be the location
of the hay barn in relation to other structures. If you have the room,
a 100-foot separation is ideal. This provides protection for other buildings
from wind conditions and heat radiation in the event of a fire. With
a 20 mph wind, sparks can be carried some distance, such as what happens in
wildfires where the flames jump fire lines. Heat radiation is another
way fires spread, and 50-100 feet is not a great distance where radiation
is involved. The
heat can be great enough to dry out adjacent structures and allow them to
ignite. So, if you can afford a separate hay barn, don’t build it too
close to your other buildings because if it’s too close you risk losing your
other buildings as well.
And speaking of saving buildings: it’s very unlikely that if your hay barn
catches fire that it can be saved. If there are no animals or humans
in the building to be rescued, you may find the fire department handling
fire suppression in one of several ways, depending on the situation and the
necessity to save nearby buildings from catching fire. Mike Weider,
senior editor at IFSTA/Fire Protection Publications in Stillwater, Oklahoma
explained that from a firefighting aspect in his excellent article “Hay Barn
Fires” published in the April 1998 issue of Firehouse, which follows this
section.