Adair Lewis examines large loss fire risks for permanent agriculture and intensive farming sheds, with interesting findings
Agriculture and intensive farming risk review
link with the environment, as the by products of the process are unwelcome in many areas and certainly when muck spreading occurs. This sort of intensive farming involves the rearing
F
of chickens, pigs and similar livestock in large sheds on farms. These are often timber built, and both the structure and straw bedding offer plenty of fuel for a fire. In addition, they are often large uncompartmented spaces where a fire is likely to develop rapidly into a major conflagration with, sadly, the loss of many lives among the animals. Thankfully there is no estimate of the life loss in
this respect, but somewhat curiously the monetary value of the livestock is not readily apparent in the losses. Each fire in these premises results in a loss, on average, of over £330,000 with some 57% of this being represented by the loss of buildings. The contents of the buildings are estimated to be just 1.5% of the total and ‘stock’ just 6%, neither figure being significantly greater than for permanent agricultural premises as a whole (indeed the contents are less, at 1.5% compared to 2.6% in other forms of farm fires). So either the animals have little worth (which
is hard to believe) or they are not included in the losses submitted to the RISCAuthority database. The lack of figures for livestock may also be reflected in the losses per unit area, which are £408m2 £447m2
for intensive farming sheds, compared to for farm fires as a whole.
There were 13 fires in intensive farming sheds in the eight year period. This approximates to one fire
OLLOWING on from fires involving animal products last month, the theme continues with intensive farming sheds, which have a
every 32 weeks, and the number represents 7.4% of all farm fires. The pattern of causes mirrors those for permanent agriculture, with 54% being accidental and 14% deliberate. As is usually the case a large proportion – nearly a third – were of unknown origin. Interestingly, the time of day that fires occurred
introduces a conundrum, as they differ markedly from the pattern for farm fires. The reason why is not at all clear. About a fifth occur between midnight and 06:00, as for farm fires in general, while later in the day just 8% occur in the mornings (perhaps when animals are tended by staff), with over 45% (twice the occurrence for farms as a whole) in the afternoon. Following this peak, none are recorded from 18:00 until midnight; an unusual statistic. As may be expected for large sheds located
on farms, the fire and rescue services report few impedances to their work. Just one in fact, where there was a lack of water in the neighbourhood of one of the events. Intensive animal farming methods and the scale of economy in heating, watering and feeding the livestock often means that a very large number of animals may be housed in a single building with a large quantity of combustible material in the vicinity. In addition to the monetary losses, fires result in unnecessary suffering for the animals. What can be done to reduce the incidence of fires? Many of the accidental fires involve electrical appliances or the electrical installations, and in particular: • overheating cables and equipment caused by overloading
• •
incorrect installation or use of equipment lack of maintenance or testing
• damaged or inadequate insulation on 52 DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018
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