The biggest causes of barn fires in the summer are electrical storms and spontaneous combustion of dry fuels like hay and firewood. Thankfully, there are several ways you can reduce the risks of these fires.
How to Reduce the Risk of Spontaneous Combustion
When machinery is stored too close to dry fuels in a barn, excess heat from use can cause spontaneous combustion. Thankfully, this is an easily preventable issue that can be avoided with thoughtful planning.
Always store dry accelerants far away from any large equipment such as tractors as well as storage locations for weed whackers, chainsaws, and other motorized hand tools. After use, these items retain heat. When they are still warm and exposed to a dry accelerant, they can cause smoldering that often leads to spontaneous combustion.
How to Protect Your Barn from Electrical Storms
The next major source of summer fires is electrical storms. Also known as lightning storms or thunderstorms, these produce lightning and kill more people each year than tornadoes. Heavy rainfall from thunderstorms can lead to both strong winds and fires on your property.
Lightning strikes, which are discharges of massive amounts of static electricity, cause one in every 50 fires in the United States. Every year, lightning strikes cause fires. When these fires are in remote or rural locations, they are often difficult to suppress and extinguish. Grassland wildfires can burn at up to 14 miles per hour. This level of speed high enough to tear through the countryside and take farms along with them.
Without seriously changing the materials used in the construction of the barn, there are several things that you can do to limit the impact of these storms on your property. Start by ensuring that the areas directly surrounding your barn remain clear of any potential debris and accelerants. You should also keep a minimum fire line of 20 feet cleared around your barn in both grassland and wooded environments.
How to Keep Your Barn Safe with Fire Retention Ponds
If an electric storm strikes, having the areas around the barn cleared, and a nearby fire retention pond ready to defend your property will make a world of difference for your barn, livestock, and farmhands, as well as emergency personnel. Because of the high risks associated with summer fires, fire retention ponds are rapidly becoming essential for the safety of farms and rural properties.
Regardless of the season, having a reliable, durable fire retention pond with a high-performance pond liner will help emergency responders fight fires around your barn quickly and effectively, so you can keep your property safe.
