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15 Ohio horses die in barn fire; heater is likely fire cause

 

 

By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER

Ohio Correspondent

 

TALLMADGE Ohio — Fifteen horses were killed in a barn fire at Mindale Farms in northern Ohio on Jan. 8. A portable heater being used on the building’s exterior to thaw frozen water pipes is currently listed as the cause of the fire, but the investigation is ongoing. "We got the call at about 11:25 in the morning, a report of a barn fire," said Patrick Gaffney, chief of the Tallmadge Fire Department. "We had the initial report that there were horses trapped. We weren’t on the road very long when we could see a large column of smoke in that general direction."

"There were workers on the farm working in the building next door," Gaffney said. "At that time, our weather was 3 degrees, so the workers were shut up inside a building and didn’t realize what was going on. They discovered it once they exited, and there was nothing they could do."

Not much can be done to stop a barn fire once it gets going, Gaffney said. They requested aid from neighboring Munroe Falls. There were fire hydrants in the area, but the barn was so far off the road that Gaffney also requested tanker trucks from the Brimfield, Suffield and Springfield fire departments.

The 21,000-square-foot barn was filled with hay, farm worker Tim Kelly told the Akron Beacon Journal. By the time the workers saw the fire, the building was full of smoke, with flames coming through the roof. They tried to enter the barn to save the horses but were driven back by the flames and smoke. "The fire was confined to the building of origin," Gaffney said. "Right now we’ve listed the cause as a portable heater that was used on the exterior of the building to try to thaw out some frozen pipes. We thought maybe it was going to be that heater, but we were so involved in that fire, and by the time it was done, it was such total destruction."

However, the first arriving police officer had taken a photo of that heater, and it confirms what the firefighters saw. It is standard procedure in the area that an insurance investigator is called in any time there is a large loss, so the cause of the fire could change.

Gaffney has been in the fire department for 33 years and has been involved in many large fires with loss of human lives, but he had never seen a fire receive so much coverage. He attributed that to social media – the fire was posted online immediately.

Many ignition sources can be found in barns

 

 

Barns are always susceptible to fires because they contain so many things that can start fires, said Kent McGuire, Ohio State University’s Agricultural Safety and Health Coordinator. One of the most dangerous things is that a barn fire can spread so rapidly that the barn can be fully engulfed in just a few minutes.

 

"That is what makes it dangerous for the farmers," McGuire said. "It can also make it very dangerous for firemen and any livestock inside. There are several ignition sources: There may be hay, feed bags. Dust can be an ignition source. There may be fuels if the farmer stores tractors or any equipment in the barn.

 

Also, wood-frame barns tend to dry out, and that becomes a fuel for that fire, McGuire said. The fire can spread rapidly to the point where there is not time to get animals out.

 

Many barn fires start in the spring, when fresh hay is being stored, said Dr. Gary Bates, director of the University of Tennessee Beef and Forage Center. Hay may be put inside when it has not been properly dried.

 

"We need to be careful when we bale hay," Bates said. "If it is round bales, it needs to be 18 percent moisture or less; if it is a square bale, 20 percent moisture or less so that we don’t get heating inside that bale. In the spring, when people have put hay up that is just slightly too wet, there are barns burned every year due to that."

 

Farmers need to wait a week to 10 days before putting hay into a barn, Bates said. It will heat up, but then should cool down. "You always wait until bales have gone through what we call their ‘sweat’ before you put them in the barn," Bates said.

 

 

1/21/2015