07-15-2019, 04:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-15-2019, 04:11 PM by heavyhorse.)
Hey I'm really sorry to hear this. Sucks big time. I mean super sucks.
All of what sw said about multiple doors, gates, direct exits. Separate exits for mares, stallions, sheep, cow, humans. So none can bottleneck the others.
I would certainly rebuild in steel. Every building here is, the house is steel clad, with class "A" fire rated shingles. (You can add steel over the outside of existing buildings when you renovate. Not as good as steel alone, but will still slow fire spread a lot).
Have widely separated purpose-built buildings if at all possible, for house, garage, shop, machinery, hay, kennel. Keep mowed between them. Never have electrical in the animal sections of the buildings. Lights in animal sections at least 12 feet up (and a really big stallion can still break a light with his head when he mounts at 10 feet).
Never use heat lamps or gas heaters. Period. Light bulbs are bad enough. LED replacements are better (and wonderfully inexpensive at walmart). If you have to have heat in animal areas, use hot water heat, powered by an electric hot water heater located outside the animal area.
Keep the "hideous flying anuses of pestilence and death" (birds) from packing straw, wool, weeds and trash inside and outside buildings. Put sheet metal shields on top of electrical fixtures to stop litter from falling on them.
Have a "flammables" cabinet outdoors away from the buildings (need not be expensive, an old freezer or refrig works great).
Never keep hay or straw in the barn, even one bale. Have separate hay storage well away. Remember, manure BURNS, don't have it near buildings. Manure, hay, feed, can combust spontaneously if they get wet.
Don't use bedding. Mats are easier to clean and don't burst into flames.
Use lightning protection. If you don't like the idea of spikes sticking up attracting lightning, run heavy gauge utility cable (like #1 or #0 gauge) along the roof ridge and ground to 8 foot ground rods on each end of the building. (My barn has been hit by lightning 3 times that I know of. Fried electrical stuff but no fire). If you have electric fence running to the barn, have 12" of thinner wire outside the barn so it will blow clear outside the building if hit by lightning.
Have a portable generator to power your well pump; you will probably lose electrical power early on. Have a 100' large dia. hose with a pressure nozzle reserved for fire use, keep drained so it won't freeze in winter. Have a hi-flow hydrant at each building. (not the environmentally friendly 2 liter/minute kind).
Personally, I never keep gas in any machinery other than the daily use truck and 4-wheeler, in separate detached garage. (Also helps deter theft if the crooks have to bring their own gas).
Keep trailers clean. Straw and manure yadda yadda yadda....
And it should go without saying: No Smoking, toking, huffing, vaping, charging batteries or devices, becoming drunk or disorderly, by the help or anyone else.
