The Annual Fire Prevention Blog

It should go without saying, but apparently there are people out there who don’t understand that there should be no smoking in barns. PERIOD! I can’t refer to these people as horsemen/horsewomen, because if they were, then they would know that you don’t smoke in or near a barn!

Recently, there was a FaceBook post about a braider who was smoking in the barns at WEC and incredulous, the author of the post who was upset by this behavior, was bashed by others who somehow tried to justify smoking in barns, with some saying that it was “just pot, so chill out” or for the author of the post to “mind her own business!” Not only is this dangerous and against the rules at WEC, regardless if it is cigarettes or pot, but do you really want someone who is being paid to braid your horse to be blowing smoke into your horse’s face (apparently on TikTok, there were those who do just this, saying their horse enjoys it) or risk ash dropping into their mane? Then there is the whole discussion about contamination and the possibility of the horse testing for drugs in their system.

In response to this FaceBook post, I created a post on TikTok about the dangers of smoking in a barn and was quite shocked at the responses, which are still coming in, days after the post was created. It is mind boggling to me that there are people who say “their barn, they will do what they want” and saying that no barn ever caught fire from a lit butt. It is disheartening to see such attitudes. Why would anyone want to take chances with a barn fire and risk losing their horse to such a horrible death?

Just this past week, 36 horses sadly lost their lives in a barn fire in North Carolina. There is no word on the cause, but because this barn was not designed with exit doors on each stall, these horses had no chance to be rescued. Sadly, this is not the first barn fire this year to claim the lives of horses.

As a responsible horseman/horsewoman, please take a moment to scan your barn. What can you do to prevent a fire in your stable, and if there were to be a fire, what measures have you taken to give your horse a fighting chance of survival? You only have a few minutes to save horses from a burning barn, before smoke damages the lungs, and then death occurs. The first thing I did when I bought my farm was to create back doors on every stall, which open into a run and those open into a large paddock. Do you have detectors? Fire extinguishers? Do you have a plan and do you drill? Have you removed flammable and combustible materials from your barn? When was the last time your electrical wiring was inspected? Is your landscaping fire resistant? I am grateful that my husband insisted upon installing sprinklers on the roof of our barn. This was done more so to drop the temperature in the barn in the summer, but if a neighbor has a burn pile and ash is blowing into my barn, I turn on the sprinklers to wet everything down, and should there ever be a fire in our adjacent woods, then the sprinklers will be turned on.

If you have not read my fire prevention blog, or perhaps you need a refresher, please go to Fire Prevention In Barns This is a multi-part series, taken in its entirety from my book Common Sense Horse Keeping. This link will take you to each part of the series.

Barn fires can happen at any moment…whether from a wildfire or human error. It isn’t worth the risk and prevention can go a long way. Make the time to develop your fire prevention plan today!

Tuesday began the Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse! So here is to a wonderful year full of good horses and lots of time in the saddle!

Don’t Forget to Hug Your Horse!

Lori