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Cousin had a barn fire

jwstewar

jwstewar

Active member
Got a call a little while ago that my cousin's barn/garage was on fire. This is his detached storage barn for his tools and equipment. I guess it was a total loss. I haven't talked to him yet - figure he is still probably pretty busy, I will call him later to see if he needs any help/tools/storage - so I still don't know what happened. I know that he was working on his old '86 Ford F250, but don't know what. I don't know everything that he lost, but I knew he keeps his Kubotas (DX28, new L48, & new M8500), Cat skidsteer, and his once restored, but being redone, 71 Mustang Mach I. I also know he kept his 2 utility trailers and stock trailer next to it as well as his F350 dump truck. Don't know where the boat and camper were, hopefully they weren't hurt.

Danny has had a rough time of it lately after some health issues from suffering carbon monoxide poisoning at work. He has actually had to have electrical treatments of his brain. Has been a long and weird road to get him back to "normal." The least little thing would stress him out and cause him to revert back. Just hope between this and the fact that some no good thief has broken into his business twice in the last few weeks (stole a certain brand of gin and a certain brand of cigs both times.:ermm:) Just hope and pray he can cope with it all.

I should also say Danny was there the night of our house fire offering any help that he could. We ended up living in his camper for 3 weeks until the insurance company was able to get us a house trailer set on our driveway.
 
Man. Sorry to hear that Jim. Let us know if he needs anything in particular. I am not that far away if I can be of help.
 
Thanks for the offer Doc. I'm sure he has everything insured so hopefully he'll be OK there. I might just have to take my lowly little New Holland over to help with some of the clean-up because I'm not sure how fast he'll be able to get new equipment as he probably doesn't have rental insurance on these.
 
I stopped to see Danny on my way home from work. He (and we) are mighty lucky. There are a couple of ways this could've started, but the most likely was he was getting ready to change the hydraulic fluid on the L48 for the first time. He had pulled it into the barn and had his torpedo heater going. He noticed a crack in the bucket so he had cut the crack with the torch and was waiting on it to cool so he could re-weld it (he is a certified welder/pipe fitter at the paper mill). He had started the tractor to warm it up so he could start draining the hydraulic fluid. He noticed that it was about out of fuel. He grabbed one of his diesel fuel cans. He was standing up on the foot rest and a hydraulic cylinder. He slipped and fell. Dropped the fuel can and broke the top off it. Diesel went everywhere. He made it to the ground. He noticed there was a rag under the tractor on fire. He started stomping it out. Noticed he was in a puddle of diesel fuel. He hurried up and kicked the rag outside but didn't see any other flames while he was doing this. He got outside though and noticed his Carhartt bibs and his coat was on fire. He hurried over and started rolling in the grass (mud actually, he was mad at himself he didn't go another 4' to the grass:yum:). He got the flame out but hurried up into the house and started spraying himself with the kitchen sink sprayer. Came back to the barn and saw it full of smoke. He then immediately called 911. He had about 80 or so gallons of diesel and probably 25 gallons of gas. He said there were several explosions. He had a panic attack - due to the brain/nerve problems he has recently. So the fire department ended up having to give him oxygen. Which really frustrated him as wasn't able to help fight the fire - he used to be a volunteer firefighter.

Adjuster said they will probably reinsure, but they will require a 12x12 metal building for fuel storage before they do.

Looks like the 3 Kubotas were lost. The 8500 was sitting out front. As he went to move it, the glass blew out of the man door and it immetiately burst into flames. The skidsteer was OK, it was back at the other barn. 4 wheeler was sitting out front. The back of it is synged. They won't cover the Mustang itself as it was uninsured, but they will pay for anything not attached to it which included engine/tranny and most of the interior. All of his Craftsman tools. His welding/cutting equipment. He was guessing somewhere around $30k in that alone. His new Echo 14' tree trimmer and a Stihl chain saw he just bought last Monday. Do you know the shafts of string trimmers won't burn? But the motors will melt down to just a little ball of metal.

Ironic part, he was starting to look around at getting some type of fuel storage tank and pump. This is where LB would insert the picture of his fueling station. I told him for $12 he could've had the Han-D-Pump and not had to worry about standing up over the hood and it is portable so like when he had rented the dozer he could've taken it down the hill with him.

Just glad he wasn't hurt. It brought back a lot of bad memories for me today.
 
I'm sure it brought back a flood of memories Jim. Man, what an ordeal. Agreed he is lucky to come out of it unharmed but man oh man, all that equipment. It will take time and a lot of dollars to replace it all. Insurance sure helps but it will not get him everything back. Best wishes to him and his family.
 
He said he was going to church Sunday because somebody was looking out for him.

I forgot to mention, they were able to save the boat and camper. The cover on the boat melted in one spot on the windshield, but doesn't look like the boat itself was hurt. His b-i-l was able to get it out from under the barn. Not sure how he made it there quick enough to do that, but he did. Fireman said they are lucky on that one. Had they not gotten it moved they would've lost the camper too. Danny tried to move his camper. Dropped the tailgate (fifthwheel) backed up to the camper. The hitch was in the barn.

He was still pretty shook up last night. His voice was still quivering.
 
Holy Cow ! I sure am sorry to hear about the fire . Thank God ,no one was injured .
 
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