does your yard have a fire drill?

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paddy555

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QUITE SAFE TO READ horses were safe.


the post is Tragic Tip Tuesday on this FB page.

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there was a comment there last night from an American woman about American barn stabling and stressing the boxes needed outside doors to get the horses out.
 
No, never had one on any yards, but making me think about fire safety on my yard I am hoping to put up at home soon.

I read that post, they were very lucky it was spotted before it got out of hand - doesn't bear thinking about the alternative.
 
Yes. My mum read Black Beauty at a young age and has never forgotten the fire in that. Any yard we’ve ever had, we’ve established evacuation process day one and it’s on a laminated sign on the place as well.

Quite how it would work given we’ve never lived on site, I don’t know but I hope it might give help to anyone who saw a fire while we weren’t there.

We very rarely stable so hopefully there would be a chance.
 
dixie said:
No, never had one on any yards, but making me think about fire safety on my yard I am hoping to put up at home soon.

I read that post, they were very lucky it was spotted before it got out of hand - doesn't bear thinking about the alternative.
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they were so very very lucky. It is very scary.
I have a plan where everyone (who have yards as well as stables) would be shoved.
The stallion would be shoved out with the mare next to him. Could be his lucky day :D:D


MrsMozart said:
Yes. It's my yard and my responsibility to make sure all are safe.
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well done Mrs M. That article does concentrate the mind. (hopefully)
 
A BHS assessor once told me she knew of a livery yard that had a livery BBQ afternoon, and sprung a fire alarm on them all - apparently took far far too long and was a great wake up call to how things like clear walkways in indoor yards, and being able to catch and move a horse quickly could actually be the difference between life and death.
 
We do but I'm probably the only one who knows about it because I was about 20 years ago when it was introduced. I think they had a fire assessment and were told to put up signs, only allow a small amount of hay and straw storage near the stables, get fire extinguishers, etc. They did, everything's under a layer of dust now and the storage rule has gone.

We have 2 big American barns which have 4 doors so that is good. Two 8 horse ones with only one large exit and another with a standard sized door where some of the stables are used to store hay and straw, I hate to think.
 
No, but about 14 years ago I used to produce a newsletter for our yard, a 4 page thing with photos, articles, jokes and puzzles. It was something to look forward to and think about during the day in what was a very boring contract that I had at the time.

One of the articles I wrote was about what to do in the event of a fire, do's and don'ts and I suggested we should carry out a fire drill.

My take home message was raise the alarm, evacuate horses nearest source of fire and to shut the stable door behind you (horses like to try to return to where they feel safest).

We never did the drill but I hoped it might have helped if there ever was a fire.
 
Jambarissa said:
We do but I'm probably the only one who knows about it because I was about 20 years ago when it was introduced. I think they had a fire assessment and were told to put up signs, only allow a small amount of hay and straw storage near the stables, get fire extinguishers, etc. They did, everything's under a layer of dust now and the storage rule has gone.

We have 2 big American barns which have 4 doors so that is good. Two 8 horse ones with only one large exit and another with a standard sized door where some of the stables are used to store hay and straw, I hate to think.
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the fire in the original post started in the hay store. After harvest newly made hay heats in the barn. If it gets too hot and it is next to or in the stables barn it is a recipe for disaster.
This almost happened to me except the hay shed was separate. I bought hay off the field, it seemed OK, checked daily as I always did and within a few days it was almost smoking. I ended up having to take nearly 100 bales of hay in and out of the barn for the next few days to stand it around the yard to let it cool down.
 
Another issue re hay and straw barns is where quad bikes or similar are stored in them and they have not been allowed to cool down before being parked.
 
only have 2 at home and all external gates are shut overnight until horses in field so i could literally chuck them out in to arena, garden, or driveway until i was sure both were safe and could separate them in to individual paddocks.
 
i saw this and was shocked that it spread so quickly - if you look at the time stamps on the CCTV it's only 10 mins from almost nothing to 10 ft high flames.

I was surprised they didn't just let all the horses out as the first step into the yard.

I appreciate they may fight / panic - and the stallion situation makes it trickier. But getting the vet to do an abortion injection or stitch up a few bites must be better than dealing with burns.
Am I missing something ?

If I walked past an empty yard and spotted a fire - even with horses I didn't know anything about. I'd probably open all the doors while being on the phone to 999.

We have a field opposite the yard that I leave the gate open to. Any escapees for any reason always wonder over into that field - I'd like to think in a panic they would do the same too.
Gate shut - away from fire then sort out who should be where.
 
Polos Mum said:
i saw this and was shocked that it spread so quickly - if you look at the time stamps on the CCTV it's only 10 mins from almost nothing to 10 ft high flames.

I was surprised they didn't just let all the horses out as the first step into the yard.

I appreciate they may fight / panic - and the stallion situation makes it trickier. But getting the vet to do an abortion injection or stitch up a few bites must be better than dealing with burns.
Am I missing something ?

If I walked past an empty yard and spotted a fire - even with horses I didn't know anything about. I'd probably open all the doors while being on the phone to 999.

We have a field opposite the yard that I leave the gate open to. Any escapees for any reason always wonder over into that field - I'd like to think in a panic they would do the same too.
Gate shut - away from fire then sort out who should be where.
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It was 2 visitors who were there initially I believe - rather than the owner.

So they weren't really sure what to do and started man handling buckets of water.

It has made me think. Mine are only really stabled during horrendous weather in February / March and I tend to only stable if there is torrential rain. But I don't live on site and the house opposite the yard is set back so might not realise there is something wrong until too late.
 
SEL said:
It has made me think. Mine are only really stabled during horrendous weather in February / March and I tend to only stable if there is torrential rain. But I don't live on site and the house opposite the yard is set back so might not realise there is something wrong until too late.
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It's really thought provoking isn't it

Even if you live on site - you could be in the shower for 15 minutes and it would all be over before you got a bath towel round yourself !

I wonder if a laminated sign with basic instructions "open all stable doors immediately and herd horses through gate to XX field or YY arena" would be worth it - so all strangers / visitors know where to start.
 
Obvious thought but how many yards have smoke alarms fitted? I don't. It's remote and I don't live there, but the odd neighbour might hear it if it was loud enough, or walkers.
 
Another very useful tip re evacuation which I was given by a firefighter & large animal rescue specialist... obviously getting them out of immediate fire danger is priority, but as soon as possible horses/livestock should then be moved upwind of the fire. In a yard fire, there is usually a huge amount of harmful chemicals from things like burning plastic (bale wrap), rugs etc etc, and you don't want horses downwind breathing that smoke in. He had a horrible story of a herd of cattle that had been evacuated to a safe field, except it was downwind in a little valley where the smoke naturally settled down into - almost all rendered 'unviable' due to smoke inhalation. An extra thing to think about in fire plans - prevailing wind direction, and evacuation options depending which way it's blowing.
 
paddy555 said:
the fire in the original post started in the hay store. After harvest newly made hay heats in the barn. If it gets too hot and it is next to or in the stables barn it is a recipe for disaster.
This almost happened to me except the hay shed was separate. I bought hay off the field, it seemed OK, checked daily as I always did and within a few days it was almost smoking. I ended up having to take nearly 100 bales of hay in and out of the barn for the next few days to stand it around the yard to let it cool down.
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for next year - get a long metal scaffolding pole and as you stack your hay put this in the middle with say 2 feet sticking out. As you walk past each day just touch the pole. As it's metal it'll conduct any heat from inside the stack to the outside and you'll feel the pole warm up - well before you have any other sign of the stack heating. It's really cheap, easy, effective and with the last two poor summers valuable as there is quite a bit of not fully dry hay around.

In the olden days they used a long thin metal spike - called a needle - hence needle in a haystack.
 
poacher82 said:
Another very useful tip re evacuation which I was given by a firefighter & large animal rescue specialist... obviously getting them out of immediate fire danger is priority, but as soon as possible horses/livestock should then be moved upwind of the fire. In a yard fire, there is usually a huge amount of harmful chemicals from things like burning plastic (bale wrap), rugs etc etc, and you don't want horses downwind breathing that smoke in. He had a horrible story of a herd of cattle that had been evacuated to a safe field, except it was downwind in a little valley where the smoke naturally settled down into - almost all rendered 'unviable' due to smoke inhalation. An extra thing to think about in fire plans - prevailing wind direction, and evacuation options depending which way it's blowing.
Click to expand...
Polos Mum said:
for next year - get a long metal scaffolding pole and as you stack your hay put this in the middle with say 2 feet sticking out. As you walk past each day just touch the pole. As it's metal it'll conduct any heat from inside the stack to the outside and you'll feel the pole warm up - well before you have any other sign of the stack heating. It's really cheap, easy, effective and with the last two poor summers valuable as there is quite a bit of not fully dry hay around.

In the olden days they used a long thin metal spike - called a needle - hence needle in a haystack.
Click to expand...
some really good tips coming out. Thanks
 
paddy555 said:
QUITE SAFE TO READ horses were safe.


the post is Tragic Tip Tuesday on this FB page.

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Log in to Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family and people you know.
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there was a comment there last night from an American woman about American barn stabling and stressing the boxes needed outside doors to get the horses out.
Click to expand...
I always always leave a field gate open so if the worst happens they can just run into them. Fire extinguishers too
 
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