Fire escape plan for horses?

[Dressage Art]

Does your barn have a fire escape plan for horses? If hauling them out will not be an option, what would your BO do?

[FancyASB]

This is dear to my heart since I was evacuated 4 times from brush fires when I lived in So CA. 1st no time fire was 100 feet from house had to just turn horses out, they went right back to their paddocks but were ok, 2nd no trailer lead them out no fun, 3rd & 4th called animal control and they hauled them to a safe place. Same area of the first fire the stable nearby had about 40 horses and no time, they put all the horses in the two outside arenas and turned on the sprinklers that were already installed to keep the dust down, worked great no horse hurt. My son is a fireman paramedic in CO and went to a large barn fire in Breckenridge. He was the only one that had any experience with horses. 4 firemen started 2 at each end of barn (this was a 20 stall barn) opened stall doors on each side got the horses out and chased to the end shut stall doors and moved to the next two and repeated until the end. It did not take them very long, no horses lost some slight singed hair was all. The two firemen at the end chased the horses into an outdoor arena. The barn was a complete loss. It had a sprinkler system down the center aisle but not over the stalls, big mistake bedding caught on fire. Trailering out really is an if depending on the road width (narrow road fire trucks can block access) remember the lady trying to trailer her horses out of the fire by San Diego none of them made it. But a guy I worked with hauled so many horses out of the San Diego area fire but he was on a wide road and the fire was not close. He hauled horses out and supplies for the firemen in; he never slept for 3 days. Also if the temperature reaches a certain degree the car computer will shut down the engine, that is what kills a lot of people who are trying to out run a fire; as stated by my friend that works for the Forestry and worked the San Diego fire. This is a good idea for a barn or a house in a fire area, sprinklers on the roof that all you do is attach a garden hose but all piping is metal not plastic (melts) and hose is inside metal pipe. My Dad set this up on our house and my little barn after the first fire. Hope some of this helps-

[goeslikestink]

Does your barn have a fire escape plan for horses? If hauling them out will not be an option, what would your BO do?

best thing is to make sure your ailse and walkways are clear from junk

people will tend to block any exit routes with junk
as this is a hazzard not just for getting the horses out but people to

a well drilled plan of action and tests all the time will save lives
and a well run yard will,
with equipment in its place and place for everything
and making sure our fixtures and fittings are not faulty
having regular checks
having clean tack rooms, feed rooms, and equipment rooms
or places so every where you go has a clear exit
to incude any tea rooms rest rooms and parking areas
making sure the emergency services have clear path
from gate to where ever is needed - ie car park to stables to yard
to house

to house everything with safety in mind




but not if stupidity of bo allows for the walkways to be blocked by tack boxes
or mountings of this and that then no one has that chance of escape
nor would it help if the car park area was blocked by peoples cars lorries or trialers

there must be a clear - run on all entry exit points

TIME -- WHAT TIME DOES ONE HAVE IN SHEAR PANIC IN A FIRE ONLY TO TRIP OR FALL OVER SOMEONES THINGS IN A WALKWAY

said that loud and clear as a lot of people on here on this site show there horses and barns off with tons of clutter in ailses and walkways its a pet hate of mine

you have one chance to get out --blocking the way could mean all of you not getting out

[Thomas_1]

Fortunately, it's not something we need to think about in the UK. We've got effective sprinkler systems - called all year round rain!

Mind you we do have to have a plan for floods!

[snkstacres]

And I found out the best laid plans are easily fouled by a herd of frightened horses. As well, I found out no matter how much water being omitted by the sprinkles system, it is simply not enough with what we keep in a barn under normal circumstances. Shavings and rubber matts burn like crazy. YOu need a ton of pressure in order to put out fire on the wooden stalls and walls, matts are almost impossible. and as I found out, heat makes the vinyl fencing melt like crazy so even the fencing that didnt catch fire was a lost cause.

Unfortunately, by the time a sprinkler system goes off, the fire is well on its way. Unless of course the fire starts in the exact correct place to set them off.

Yes, I am for sprinkler systems. do I think they will do the job, no, but............it sure will buy a lot of time and hopefully save some.

Heres praying we dont lose any to barn fire this year, or any other for that matter.

[Dressage Art]

Some good ideas, thank you.
We have a lot of fires here in California, since we have tons of rolling hills full of dry grass that is a waist high. My boarding barn is made from the fireproof materials and has truck wide aisle where trucks deliver hay driving thru them. But we are almost at the end of the canyon road, so this narrow road will be blocked by fire trucks probably, so thus the question what is the best proven thing to do when there is a fire in the barn and you can’t haul horses out.

Seems that there are only 2 choices: gather them in the arena or let them free in to the cow pastures? What works the best?

[caarabianlover]

We lived in Reche Caynon CA when the fires went through in 2003 not fun we had the fire coming from Moreno Valley side and San Bernardino Side, we keep the fly mask on the horses, put on their halters with name & phone number tags, moved them to the arena and keep them wet. In Anza 2008 fires went through the San Diego areas we sprayed our phone phone number on everyone and were ready to let them out free if there was no way to get everyone trailered out in time.

[mjrtango93]

Well we have an unusual situation for CA so this is our fire plan (haven't had to use it yet but its a good thing): Basically all trailers are left at barn, with 5 trucks that live there. In event of fire, most expensive, and sick/injured are removed first and hauled to the fairgrounds which is a 10 minute drive away. From there we make as many trips as need be. The unusual part to us is we are on 300 of our own land and the barn is fenced off from the property, then we are surrounded by a good 2000 acres horses could get into without going through fencing. So if it starts getting hairy or no time to load and evac we put halters on, let them loose, and shut the gates to the barn. We have 2 quads that are always gassed up to chase off horses if need be. On that much open land they would be able to run far enough away from the fire. Then after all is sorted out we would go looking for them.