Country living perils

Richard from SE AZ · Jan 8, 2015

The perils of living in the country. Structure fire one mile from my home. It took the volunteer fire dept about 40 minutes to get there from 15 miles away. Nothing we could do without them, when they got here the structure was fully engulfed. Went home to get out of the way. Resident lost two tractors and all of his shop stuff. So sad.

Nancy Howell · Jan 8, 2015

Yes, sad.

Pitalplace · Jan 8, 2015

The problem is not in the response time but not enough water. Most of the time in the country you can't pump enough water fast enough to do any good. Not enough supply. BTDT

SweetFeet · Jan 8, 2015

That's too bad...I'm glad it wasn't their home though.

gab · Jan 8, 2015

Reading your topic I thought you were talking about plowing snow, got to do that shortly, went from 10 below to +5, wind howling all day but I live in the country, can see the water tower in town from this chair and the fire dept. is across the st. from the tower. About a mile and half away, now I feel fortunate to be that close, plowing snow will be a breeze.

RayP(MI) · Jan 8, 2015

We just last week had a multi million loss of a potato warehouse and machinery warehouse near here. Our township was the responding department. They had tankers from 20 surrounding departments from 6 counties. Had to get an excavator in to open up the building so they could get at it. Strong winds and extreme cold also hindered fighting the fire. We had a whole bunch of heros out there that night. Lets face it, we just don't have the manpower or equipment in our rural areas to handle these major fires. (And our department and neighboring departments have done very well assembling equipment and manpower.)

jeremy in NE · Jan 8, 2015

That is one nice thing about all of the irrigation going in. Most
all of the farmers grant us access and have a hook up for our
department

Dick2 · Jan 8, 2015

We had a large farmstead, so Dad spread out the buildings so if there was a fire we would probably lose only that one building. And we got lots of exercise walking from one building to another!

Richard from SE AZ · Jan 8, 2015

The only way to have water for fighting the fires in our area is to haul it in. Three water trucks came but it was not enough. Just looked through my telescope and roof is completely gone. Fire still visible through a window. Pretty large building.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 8, 2015

Another good reason large farm buildings need to be 100% metal.

WGM · Jan 8, 2015

And I suppose the contents are fire retardant also. I have been in the construction business for over forty years and several times have built new buildings to replace 100% steel buildings totally destroyed by fire. No type on construction is immune to fire.

LAA · Jan 8, 2015

About 30 years ago I lived in a small former saw mill town with a huge old general store that was built out of solid heart pine, the store was located right next door to the fire department, the store caught fire one winter night and burned so hot it was all they could do to save the fire department building.

GreenEnvy · Jan 8, 2015

Our local NH dealer just burned up. Building was made out of cinder/concrete. Yet somehow everything INSIDE the building was still destroyed. Don't matter what a building is made out of. Everything inside can still burn.
NH Dealership burns to the ground

showcrop · Jan 8, 2015

Our town FD is a call type with two full timers during the day. We used to have a number of guys that were in town most of the time that would get trucks on the road in 2-3 minutes. A new chief took over and he pushed all the older guys out and the new guys are either out of town or won't get out of bed at night. But that is OK because the next town can get their trucks here in ten minutes.

ShadetreeRet · Jan 8, 2015

There are still so many variables concerning emergency response. Of course, most areas now have a volunteer fire dept. somewhere in the area, but many are still not within a quick response distance. When I moved here over 35 years ago, our volunteer fire dept. was about four miles from the house, with another community dept. about six miles in the other direction. Since, they have expanded and our dept. has at least two satellite locations, and just recently the county has at least one paid person on duty at all times. I feel fortunate in that our county is so co-operative in this respect this is one place where I don't mind seeing my tax dollars go.

s,mac · Jan 9, 2015

We can not get people to volunteer to be fire fighters. I have been doing it for 23 yrs. Everyone says they don't have time. But they like to complain when you don't show up in time. Volunteer F.D need help. Please join and help any way you can. Steve

Traditional Farmer · Jan 9, 2015

It can happen to any building but a spark or small gas fire will certainly ignite a piece of wood a whole lot quicker than a piece of steel wouldn't you say?
I bet there have been several dozen 'building burned down'
reports here in the last 10 years and I can't remember even 1 being a 100% metal building.Sort of like being in a wreck riding in a Mack verses a VW Bug you 'could' get killed in the Mack but I'll take my chances with the Mack over the VW any day.

M Nut · Jan 9, 2015

I wish I could be a VFM. Our local FD is 12 miles away, and they won't accept anyone who lives more than 5 miles away from the station. They prefer you are within 2 miles. Our next closest FD is 30 miles away. I can understand wanting the fire fighters to be close to town, but it does limit the number of willing rural people who would be happy to do their part.

showcrop · Jan 9, 2015

(quoted from post at 05:20:00 01/09/15) It can happen to any building but a spark or small gas fire will certainly ignite a piece of wood a whole lot quicker than a piece of steel wouldn't you say?
I bet there have been several dozen 'building burned down'
reports here in the last 10 years and I can't remember even 1 being a 100% metal building.Sort of like being in a wreck riding in a Mack verses a VW Bug you 'could' get killed in the Mack but I'll take my chances with the Mack over the VW any day.

NFPA has a lot of research backing up their construction recommendations that are part of BOCA code. Firefighters are taught about various types of building construction in basic training. Fire load within a building depends primarily on the contents. Insurance companies make inspections to try to keep conditions inside a building safe. The actual structure has to pass stringent code requirements. Wood structure has to be covered with fire rated sheet rock, which in some places like between a house and a attached garage has to be thicker than in the interior of a house. Woodframed commercial structures depending on the occupancy are usually protected by Sheetrock which takes considerable time to burn through. Steel frame is often bare and as we learned at fire school will fail suddenly once a period of time at a high temperature passes. Firefighters are usually allowed less time to put out a fire in an exposed frame steel building than wood stick framed. More time is allowed in the case of post and beam framing which can maintain its strength virtually for hours. Fire fighters are under considerable pressure to get to the seat of the fire quickly in order to get it out or at least significantly cooled down or the officer in charge will order them out.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 9, 2015

I have never ever seen a machinery storage building with sheetrock covering the wood.Anyway with all metal there is nothing to cover which means less expense.

s,mac · Jan 9, 2015

Is it possible to start up a VFD in your local area? Steve

T in NE · Jan 11, 2015

12 miles is pretty d*** local where I am.

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