07-16-2019, 02:37 AM
I want to say thanks to <a contenteditable="false" data-ipshover="" data-ipshover-target="<___base_url___>/profile/1910-heavyhorse/?do=hovercard" data-mentionid="1910" href="<___base_url___>/profile/1910-heavyhorse/">@heavyhorse</a> for the very well detailed and informative reply. Many of those practices mentioned are used here as well, though all-steel buildings aren't. The Horse barn is a combo steel and log building with a slab-wood upper area. The steel & log part still stands. The house and several smaller buildings are log, and lost only portions of porch or roof areas that were slab. Most of these buildings were made from the wood cleared to build them. The hay barn alone was pole and slab, and should have been steel instead. The machine shed actually was steel, with a steel roof, but for one section that extended out from the doors and I foolishly left those doors open giving the fire a clear route. Fuel was stored a good distance away, but there was oil and other flammables in the equipment, and fuel in the tanks. Even steel warps and melts under those circumstances.
We had a very strong wind storm last night, gusts severe enough to send embers building to building over distances that should have been adequate, but weren't. Know your area's weather and it's possibilities before you build. With a bit more research, as I did today, I might not have built as close. The storm was rare, but not unheard of.
On electrical and lighting, everything HH said. I've been switching to led's here over the last 6 months too. My lights in the barn are/ were all high and well protected as well. I also concur with the lightning protection.
You can never not have insurance in my opinion either. We're still in the early stages of trying to figure out the cause of this. The wiring was all fairly new in the horse barn, and no modifications or repairs had been done. The stall areas are undamaged, so not the cause. The cause was somewhere in the upper truss area where limited wiring existed. We have to get the burned and collapsed roof off the lower rafter supports though to inspect any of it.
Thank you for the kind thoughts.
sw
