Fire Protection for the Homestead.

fire

Over the years I have often wrote about having fire extinguishers around the house and practicing good fire prevention.  Here is a post that was sent to me that gives some idea of how you can provide yourself fire protection and help your local volunteer fire department.  There are some good ideas in it.

Howard.

We have a fire safety company in our town.  They have supplied us with old but still full fire extinguishers that were taken out of service, that would have otherwise been dismantled and thrown out. These units are used in our neighborhood watch program for training. The volunteer fire department brings their burn pan and supervises the training. Since not everyone, shows up regularly, we have the training sessions scattered throughout the year to be sure everyone gets a chance to use an extinguisher and is current on their use.

We found that even some of the ladies who were shy and scared of using an extinguisher at first, overcame their fear after a couple of practice sessions. Everyone that has used an extinguisher a couple of times now takes them right up and applies them in a no-nonsense manner. Perhaps familiarity does breed contempt, and in this case, that is a good thing.

The extinguishers supplied by the company are all 10 pound units, so the people are now used to the weight of a heavier unit. Having experienced a brush fire up close and personal, I was personally converted from the usual homeowner situation of a “small extinguisher under the sink” to having several larger ones at each building exit. At the time of the fire I was wishing for the largest one made by man.

An IBC tote with a pump on it.  This can be used in a vehicle or in a fixed location
An IBC tote with a pump on it. This can be used in a vehicle or in a fixed location

On another note, we have assembled a “poor man’s” Type 6 wildland firefighting skid which slides into our farm truck’s 7 by 12 foot flatbed. It is similar to the Wranglerstar video  except that our truck has a useful bed size. We use two 250 gallon IBC’s plumbed together and a gas powered water pump with a hundred feet of inch and a half hose. Our shop has two 300 gallon IBC’s with another gas powered pump and 200 feet of inch and a half hose for building protection. We get the IBC’s at a local cleaning company for $50 each, and they always have a good supply on hand. Ebay has been a good source of inexpensive but perfectly serviceable turnout gear so that if we have a fire we won’t be facing it in shorts and flip-flops. We also have two plastic backpack sprayers for mop up. They are not the good metal Indian ones you mentioned in an article a while ago; this was our cost compromise for a less-critical piece of equipment.

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The next project is installing two 300 gallon IBC’s on a tower near the watering trough for the cows, where they can be filled by the solar well pump. The VFD will have easy access to this as a refill station as there are no hydrants nearby.

I was talking with the guys at a forestry fire watch tower, where they have several wildland fire engines. They have one of those off-road golf cart type 4 wheelers with a 30 gallon tank, small gas pump and hose. This was a great idea, as they can get in and put out hotspots while they are surveying or monitoring an existing fire. Many of the people around here have ATV’s, so it would be handy to have some small trailers with a tank and pump for them. It may be these efforts that take a bad situation “well we can always rebuild” and turn it into “that could have been really nasty but we handled it”. I would rather spend some time, effort, and money on protective equipment and training for my community than having to bulldoze charred timbers and warped roofing tin into a pile.

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6 thoughts on “Fire Protection for the Homestead.”

  1. Hi! Thank you for the article on these handy fire protection pumps. Living in a dry area, I think it is a good idea to do what’s necessary to protect your house if needed. It’s great there are ways to be prepared to protect your assets against the damages of a fire, and to know how to take the actions necessary to use this equipment.

  2. For those that live a bit out of town, fire services could be a long ways away. It’s good to see the ingenuity that they have to use those water tanks as the reservoir for the hoses. Even having something simple like that could save a lot of time and even put out the fire themselves.

  3. I certainly like the use of the ibc tank for fire protection. During my 30 years in the fire dept. I did several studies of wildland firefighting units. If you are considering assembling one of these, please be sure to calculate the total weight and make sure your vehicle can safely carry it. Most poly tanks do not have baffles and the water will shift when cornering in a vehicle so be cautious when driving. I like the small 2 stage pumps often seen on ebay as they will generate pressures suitable for firefighting (most small pumps do not). Stay safe this summer.

  4. Standard fire hose is probably going to be too heavy and maintenance intensive. You can use a good quality garden hose for up to 100′ length. Wildland fire hose in 1″ and 1 1/2″ sizes can be used but must be kept clean and dry as mildew will attack the fabric and destroy it. For emergency only use the unlined fire hose used in building standpipes works well. It is often available on ebay for reasonable prices. Fire hose has different threads called “national hose thread” and will require adapters to thread onto pipes.

  5. Hi,
    for my client (www.dcr.com.pl) I’m writing a post about using IBC containers in an unusual way. I found your post about using it as a fire protection for the homestead an I’d like to write about it and use your photo. Would it be possible if I reffered to your blog just under the photo? Thanks in advance for your answer.
    Jan

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