Call the fire department

“Call the fire department. Hurry.”

Have you ever hollered those words? Many of us have and it isn’t fun. We had several house fires early in our farm life, until we realized the chimney was the problem in our old house. One morning, I started frying bacon and then went out to help the trucker who came to pick up a cow, but I forgot to turn off the stove. Luckily, the fire department was able to save the house. We had a combine start on fire and once it reached the hydraulic lines, it really got hot.

Farmers have told me about driving home as fast as they could to put out a fire near their feet or under the hood. Spontaneous combustion has also burnt down many barns. People have described finding holes in haymows where a pocket burned but couldn’t get air and died out. That’s a lucky situation. Round bales are the leading cause of spontaneous combustion these days.

Last week, Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin hosted a working display about fire prevention and action in Madison. Pittsville Fire Department Chief Jerry Minor was the presenter. He was a source of good information for all farmers.

He asked attendees what they thought is a good fire extinguisher. He said the ABC ones are good if they are charged, but that they should be turned upside down every month and shook to break up the powder inside them. Then farmers can be confident that they will work. 

Fire extinguishers last 35-40 seconds when the pin is pulled. He emphasized that that’s not much time, so people need to know how to use them. Once an extinguisher has been used, either recharge it or throw it away.

A construction company in La Crosse had a shop fire in February. Video footage from their security system captured the start of the fire. Power tool batteries overheated and exploded. Chief Minor said to handle batteries with care, especially damaged batteries. They can be dangerous if anything has punctured them. He also said not to overcharge them and not to put them on timers.”

Other electrical fires are common on farms due to old wiring and the fact that box sites are often dirty and dusty. If you experience a fire, always shut the power off after calling 9-1-1.

In 2021 we had talked about having our local firemen out to walk through the farm and create a plan for emergencies. These volunteers need to know where our fuel and oil tanks are – the same with chemicals.How do we explain where on the farm to go in an emergency? We have more than one cow barn, so how would we tell them which barn? If someone fell in a manure channel, do they know where that is? The list of questions is endless, but in an emergency every second counts. If you live many miles from town, I guarantee the wait is agonizing as you hear the sirens blaring, but can’t yet see fire trucks.

We never had those discussions. Then in April  2022, smoke came rolling out of the roof on our large storage shed while I was out in a field. Peter and Jaime also noticed it at the same time. This shed had just received a semi load of oats hulls and a load of ground corn. It also had 150 big square bales of straw, $100,000 worth of seed corn (which burns very well), a 15-foot no till drill, three skid loader and various other small attachments. But the biggest danger was that the fire was only 50 feet away from our shop and all the power for the farm goes through the shop’s electrical room.

We need to thank the five fire departments who responded to our emergency with over 50 guys. Two things really helped that day: One was an east wind that kept the heat away from the house. The second was the Hillsboro Fire Department’s new ladder truck. Our fire was its first job. One fellow perched on that ladder for three hours and kept the heat away from the shop and some of our feed bins. The plastic bins looked like toasted cheese by the end of the ordeal. When I called for an excavator, the operator already had it loaded – news travels fast in small town America. Since the fire started while Jacqui was at the high school coordinating the FFA banquet, we ended up having plenty of food for the firemen and additional helpers.

We live six miles from a water hydrant. Many, many trucks were hauling water that day. Chief Minor brought up an interesting idea: Maybe we could create rural hydrants out of runoff ponds or streams or lakes. It wouldn’t take a lot of time to get these hydrants operational and we could have clean water for the fire pumps.

Just as access to water is important, so is planning and prevention. My longtime friend Dr. Andy always preached: “Proper prior planning prevents poor performance.” Most fires are preventable. Ours started from a skid loader parked inside two hours earlier. Was the radiator clean? Was it parked in straw? We don’t know. Our custom harvester lost his Claas to fire recently; now he blows it off and out every day it is used.

Finally, we can help our local fire departments plan. They need farm people who can help understand situations quicker from their experiences. Could you help?