[AT] yes, it may catch on fire.

Larry Goss rlgoss at insightbb.com
Mon Apr 19 10:24:20 PDT 2010


I'm not a fire fighter, but I have always felt that a barn fire was "something else."

Our barn burned on the farm on December 1, 1950.  The whole barn was flat on the ground in less than 45 minutes, but the grain burned for more than a month afterward.  The combination of hay, oats, wheat, and ear corn overwhelmed the fire department, and all they could do was keep other buildings cool.  

Larry


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve W." <falcon at telenet.net>
Date: Monday, April 19, 2010 11:39
Subject: Re: [AT] yes, it may catch on fire.
To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>

> charliehill wrote:
> > Steve, the shed fire I was talking about was at a shed beside 
> the farm shop 
> > and behind the houses of the two brothers that own the 
> farm.  They spotted 
> > the fire pretty early on.  There is a hydrant right in 
> front of their houses 
> > and they have a big well for their center pivot system right 
> out behind the 
> > shop.  Believe me water was not a problem.  For that 
> matter the river is 
> > less than 1/4 mile away.  It was just a very hot 
> fire.  The FD couldn't 
> > really get close enough to it to effectively fight it.  
> They pretty much had 
> > to stand back, keep the shop cooled down,  blow in as 
> much water as possible 
> > and watch it burn.
> > 
> > Charlie
> 
> If the shed was close to other buildings then I can understand 
> them just
> controlling the heat and letting it burn.
> 
> One of the things that hasn't really worked through the fire 
> service in
> the past few years is that many of the old tactics are VERY outdated.
> 
> The old image of running into the fire and putting it out is 
> becoming a
> lot harder to do because of the heat modern materials puts out 
> and how
> fast current construction burns. The old rule of thumb that a fire
> doubles in size every 3 minutes while generating temperatures 
> under 1000
> degrees is VERY wrong today. Currently the rule is that fire 
> doubles in
> size in modern construction in less than a minute and generally the
> temps run well over 1800 degrees with spikes running over 2000!
> Add in the toxic fumes generated from all the synthetics, 
> adhesives and
> electronics in a modern home and you get an area that is far deadlier
> than it ever was.
> 
> I do some of the training in our department and some of the current
> numbers from testing of R&C fires is terrifying. One of the 
> recent tests
> actually had a problem when the thermocouples they used to 
> measure the
> temps failed and melted, and they were rated for 2500 degrees!!
> 
> -- 
> Steve W.
> (\___/)
> (='.'=)
> (")_(")
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