Grower's Worst Nightmare

On the afternoon of Friday July 6, 2007 tender fruit grower Torrie Warner experienced a farmer's worst nightmare…fire. Torrie called me late the same day to get advice on his damaged three-year old cold storage and I visited the following week. This past fall I asked Torrie if he would share what he learned during this experience.

Refrigeration contractors were doing soldering repair work to piping attached about 30 cm (1 ft) off the floor on the outside wall of his cold storage. The stud wall had steel on the inside, with 75 mm (3 in) sprayed-on polyurethane foam insulation (PUFI) from the outside, then outside steel similar to Figure 1. No doubt the contractors had done this kind of work countless times, but although no sparks hit the PUFI directly because there was steel covering it from the outside, heat from the work appears to have ignited the PUFI inside the wall. There never appeared to be flames, but the PUFI smouldered quickly up the wall to the eaves then outward in a chimney effect, melting the PUFI and charring the studs. The horizontal spread of the damaged area under the eaves was about 30 m (100 ft). The contractor acted professionally and quickly, called 911, and the Lincoln fire department arrived in just 5 to 7 minutes. The firemen were able to put the fire out quickly, so that from start to finish the fire lasted only about 30 minutes. However, the fire department actually took 'temporary control of the building(s) or property by closing and preventing entry to the land or premises for the length of time necessary to extinguish the fire and complete the examination of the scene in order to determine the cause and origin of the fire'. This was done under the authority of the Fire Protection and Prevention Act (1997). The temporary control lasted from the time of the alarm at 14:39:36 to 19:50, a period of just over 7 hours.

Figure 1: Soldering work was being done 30 cm off the ground on the outside of the cold storage against the stud wall similar to the cross section above.

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Now, the cleanup and repairs, which were costly at a whopping $100,000 even though only parts of three walls were damaged (Figure 2). This was triple what Torrie originally thought. The breakdown was about 50% structural work, 10% for damaged fruit and contents, and 40% for cleanup which included using special materials to wash the storage and get rid of the lingering smoke odour. The work was finally done by mid-August, about 6 weeks later.

What did Torrie learn? He has purchased more fire extinguishers and installed them more strategically in areas where they can be found easily and quickly in an emergency. Even though the contractor's insurance paid for all the work, Torrie cautions growers to make sure to hire reputable contractors with proper insurance. If no contractors had been involved, Torrie cautions growers to make sure they have replacement insurance and not depreciated-value insurance. Call 911 first, then try to put the fire out, not the other way around. Torrie had a lot of praise for the fire department whose quick action and experience prevented the rest of the farmstead from going up in flames. They know what they're doing and will ask for your help when needed. Torrie also said the cleaning company was invaluable and it is important to hire a company who knows how to clean after a fire. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Figure 2: Parts of three walls were damaged in the fire. Note the blackened PUFI near the top of the wall because of a 'chimney-effect' inside the wall and horizontal spread of about 30 m (100') under eaves. The ignition point was in the centre of the picture near ground level.

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