Cover Story: The Key to Preventing Barn Fires

Thursday, October 9, 2008

THE KEY TO PREVENTING BARN FIRES
Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation – and a $40 infrared measuring gun

With barn fires more prevalent in the pork industry than in other livestock sectors, insurers are stressing prevention and good management. At particular risk: new barns built within the last 10 years

By DON STONEMAN

Could a $40 infrared temperature measuring "gun" save your pig barn from a fire?
The president of Perth County Pork Producers thinks so.

Doug Ahrens finishes hogs from 600 sows in a bank barn that was renovated in1982 and a "new" barn built in the mid-1990s. He sits on the board of his local farm mutual insurance company, Tradition, and has worked as an insurance adjuster. His experience makes him keenly aware of the danger of fires, particularly in pork operations.

Ahrens tests electrical connections with an infrared temperature measuring device which cost "$40 on sale" at a national auto supply store. Unlike the thermal devices used by insurance company inspectors, which cost many thousands of dollars, the gun doesn't take pictures. However, when the laser on the infrared gun is pointed at a "hot spot," the digital readout indicates the temperature immediately and Ahrens uses it to spot-check breakers, electrical outlets and light switches.  "It tells me we have a problem before we know it," he says. The same device serves to test bearings on tractor and farm implements.

Jim Zyta, vice-president of loss prevention for North Waterloo Farm Mutual, is also enthusiastic about the temperature gun's potential to detect electrical anomalies. "It's very affordable… and easy to use."

Farmers, he says, should be using it weekly to inspect receptacles, breaker panels, and compare temperatures when barn fans and motors are operating and under load. And he thinks that his mutual company should consider holding producer seminars for customers on how to use the cheap and affordable tool.

Like other mutual companies in Ontario, North Waterloo and Tradition are active in preventing expensive fires. Zyta says that North Waterloo is examining all confined livestock operations now, but hog barns are getting special attention.

The reason? Gases rise from pits under the barns and corrode electrical connections of all types. And if the pits aren't properly ventilated, the gas collects in barn ceilings, waiting for a spark from a heater to cause a flash fire. Zyta says that it is well-known in the insurance industry that there are more fires in pig barns than in other confined livestock operations.

Farm Mutual Reinsurance Plan Inc., a re-insurer for Ontario's farm mutual insurance companies based in Cambridge, also has its eyes on pig barns. "My department is trying like crazy to stop barn fires," says Randy Drysdale, manager of loss control services.
While insurance companies are dealing with these issues, the province is considering changes to the building code for farm structures, a reaction, at least in part, to barn fires and roof collapses in the last number of years. But an updated code isn't going to apply to the pig barns erected during the barn building boom which started just over 10 years ago and ended as pork prices turned downwards. 

Those new barns worry Ahrens. "A lot of farmers aren't aware there are big problems" associated with the new barns, he says.

These barns are more tightly sealed than structures of past eras, trapping manure gas that shortens the lifespan of electrical and gas services, contributing to fire hazards.
Vigilance is required, but the pig economy has not been good to farmers in the last few years, so some farmers have let regular maintenance slide, particularly on electrical systems. That approach to cost cutting is risky, Ahrens says. Barns require and deserve maintenance just as much as a tractor or a truck.

Steep replacement costs
From the point of view of an insurer, he says, the big barns are a particular problem, because the cost of replacing them is so steep. Costs come in three categories – rebuilding the structure, replacing the livestock and replacing income lost until the rebuilt barn is producing a cash flow.

"When these barns burn, we are talking millions of dollars. They could be out (of production) for a couple of years," His own relatively modest 600-sow, farrow-to-finish operation would likely cost an insurer $3 million to replace if it burned during the winter. (Income replacement insurance would still be place if reconstruction was delayed.) A 2,500 sow former Premium Pork barn near Lucan, which burned last year, might take two years to rebuild and get back into production and cost as much as $12 million.

"Everybody thought they wouldn't burn. The Premium Pork barn has shown us otherwise." In 2003, fast growing Premium Pork, based in Lucan, was the second largest sow operation in Canada with 47,000 sows, typically raised in Ontario in 2,500 sow capacity buildings. The hog market turned downward and in 2005 the company folded, and new owners took over the barns.

"They were all concrete basically, except for the roof," Ahrens, says, and yet the Lucan barn was rapidly reduced to smouldering wreckage. Firefighters were back to their stations four hours after being called out, Ahrens asserts.

While Premium Pork is long gone and "the building boom is over," Ahrens says that insurers must still deal with the buildings erected during those headier times in the pork industry.

He is calling for an education program for owners and operators of existing barns. Along with electrical corrosion issues, there been barn explosions caused by methane. Drysdale can cite five such fires in barns covered by mutual companies in the last two years.

A particular concern is fire from methane gas that collects in the barn rooms in pit-ventilated, all-in, all out operations where heat and fans are turned off when the barn is rested between groups of pigs. The gases are a hazard when heaters are turned on again in cold barns.

Ahrens says these fires typically happen in all-in, all-out nurseries and finishing barns where pigs are emptied in the winter and the heat and ventilation are turned off for a week while the barn is empty.

Methane gas is lighter than air and migrates to the ceiling of a room. When re-entering the barn, the farmer typically flips on a switch that starts the heater because temperatures are low. If the right mixture of methane and oxygen is present there is an explosion and a fire. Methane levels of five to 15 per cent are ripe for an explosion. Sometimes, says Drysdale, some ventilation takes place before methane levels drop to the upper levels of 15 per cent and a fire occurs.

The fire will snuff itself out when methane levels drop below five per cent, but some material in the barn room walls or ceiling may have caught fire by then. An additional concern is that pressure washing may de-laminate the surface of plywood walls or ceilings, leaving tinder-like shreds and splinters that catch fire easily.

Ahrens says the solution is simple. "We need to get electricians back in the barns and install a three way switch." The barn operator would turn on fans alone at first, to evacuate the methane gas before turning on the heat.

Zyta has another solution. Put the pig barn heaters outside, where there's no exposure to gases from the manure and duct the heat back into the barn. This removes the risk from an open flame over the pit, which Zyta calls the livestock equivalent of a sewage treatment plant.

Warning sign
Robert Chambers, engineer for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, calls discoloured copper piping "the canary in the coal mine." It is a signal that a barn's atmosphere isn't good.

He says that barn ventilation should never be completely turned off. Even if a barn is cold the manure in the pit is still producing methane, he warns.

Ahrens adds that running minimal ventilation and allowing pigs to heat the rooms can be a management mistake. Manure gases can enter the attic through ceiling outlets and corrode the gables and the gussets in the trusses.

Another issue related to barn gases is deterioration of electrical circuits. The atmosphere in pig barns is particularly unfriendly to wiring and electrical panels.

There are greases for terminal connections and for use in plugs, though Ahrens admits that greasing won't solve all of these problems, as there are internal parts that can't be reached and may corrode.

Ceiling electrical outlets, mounted on conduit, are a huge potential for fire, Drysdale says.

Chambers believes that the answer to most of these problems is "ventilation, ventilation, ventilation."

While some problems are a result of management, Ahrens blames others on the lack of proper materials for maintenance. His view is that farmers need better materials to work with. Ahrens wants to see stainless steel on plug ends on heat lamps in sow barns. He says that they aren't available in supply stores. But Zyta says that even stainless steel doesn't solve all of the problems associated with corrosive gases.

"A barn is no different than a tractor or a truck, he says. "It needs to be looked at daily and monthly."

Ahrens says that part of his pig-producing facility was producing pigs in 1982, while a new part was built in 1996. Electrical panels in older barns located where the pigs are need to be replaced regularly and Ahrens says he has replaced his older bank barn's electrical panel three times. He regularly re-greases and "re-torques" electrical connections to their proper tightness.

His mutual board watched closely as reinsurer Farm Mutual Reinsurance Plan Inc, conducted a loss prevention study on pork-producing portfolios for Ilderton-based Middlesex Mutual Insurance. Inspectors use $40,000 thermal sensing cameras, expensive devices which take photos of the temperatures associated with electrical devices. Farm operators called in their electricians, at the expense of the insurance company for the inspection. A thermal imaging camera "is a huge benefit," in looking for these fire threats, Drysdale says.

Ahrens says Tradition Mutual, of which he is a board member, is considering a similar loss prevention study and he says that the "substantial cost" to the insurance carrier is worthwhile. "If we save one barn, we have got our money back very quickly."

But not everyone agrees on what is going to work in a barn. The drop cord is easier to maintain than a ceiling mounted conduit outlet, he says. Male plugs coated with electrical grease lubricate the inside of the female plug hanging from the ceiling, reducing corrosion.

But drop cords aren't as clear a solution, as far as Ahrens is concerned. He says they are hard to clean because they swing in the spray from a pressure washer and fly feces accumulate on the cords, rotting the rubber and exposing wires.

Still, says Drysdale, it is important to "do the maintenance." Get an electrician in the barn at least once a year to inspect receptacles and replace them as needed.

He also recommends checking the main electrical system and looking for loose or corroded connections in the electrical panel. Corrosion increases resistance, increasing the temperature and increasing the "thermal runaway," which can cause a fire.

Thermal runaway refers to a situation where an increase in temperature changes the conditions in a way that causes a further increase in temperature, leading to a destructive result. Drysdale says that thermal runaway can set a breaker in an electrical panel on fire "and breakers aren't supposed to burn."

In the meantime, Ahrens is frustrated by the efforts to upgrade the building code. "We can't seem to get people (on the committee) to admit that the barns that are built are the ones we have to deal with.

"Education is paramount," Ahrens says. BP

Sidebar:

Feed additives which reduce manure gases

Doug Ahrens is a keen advocate of feed additives, which he says prevent or reduce dangerous and flammable gases from being released from the manure in the pit under the barn. "But nobody wants to endorse these products," Ahrens says, and they are often referred to as "foo-foo dust."

"Not all of them work," he allows, "but some of them do."

Provincial agricultural engineer Robert Chambers won't comment on the efficacy of any products used to reduce manure gases. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) won't either. Communications officer Marilyn Taylor says that an approval of a feed product by CFIA is an indication that is safe for the animals and meat from them is safe to consumer. It is not an endorsement that it works. "We stay away from that," she says.

But Ahrens remains adamant that the product he uses works. He runs a 600-sow, farrow-to-finish operation near Carlingford, south east of Stratford in Perth County. "The copper pipe in my barn still looks like copper pipe after 12 years," he says.

In many barns, he asserts, copper changes colour within two weeks of installation, a sign of a poor air environment, which affects essential electrical installations as well. BP