<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">My bale house burned while in construction. All bales up, windows just set, a tarp around the house due to approach bad weather— perfect recipe for a fast fire. The general contractor was cleaning straw up from the trimming going on as windows were set. Inexplicably he used a halogen construction light on a 6” stand. The cord got pushed by the broom, pulled the light into a pile of loose straw…. 7 minutes to total structural collapse. <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In typical fashion many in the area wanted to point to the fact that it was a bale house. In reality this was a really bad use of halogen light and a silly accident. The bales themselves did not really burn (60 dump trucks of debris to haul away… ugh), but the unflustered fine straws protruding out did provide a rapid means to spread the fire to the floor and roof systems.</div><div class=""><br class=""><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div class="" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><div class=""><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><span class=""><span class="">Not sure that really helps, but there is my ‘case study.’</span></span></div><div class=""><span class=""><span class=""><br class=""></span></span></div><div class=""><span class=""><span class="">August</span></span></div><div class="" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class=""><b class=""><br class=""></b></span></div><div class="" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class=""><b class="">August Hasz, P.E., </b>LEED AP<br class=""><i class="" style="font-family: Helvetica-LightOblique;">President + Principal Engineer</i></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="" style="font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><div dir="auto" class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><div class=""><div class="" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div class=""><span class="" style="font-size: x-large; color: rgb(148, 17, 0);">REG</span></div><div class=""><font color="#941100" class="" style="font-size: 14px;">Resource Engineering Group</font><br class="">Direct: 970.713.0984</div><div class="">Office: 970.349.1216</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="" style="font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Cell: 970.275.3603</div><div class="" style="font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><a href="mailto:hasz@reginc.com" class="">hasz@reginc.com</a> </div><div class="" style="font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><a href="http://www.reginc.com/" class="">www.reginc.com</a></div></div></div>
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<div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On May 29, 2018, at 11:34 AM, Bob Theis <<a href="mailto:bob@bobtheis.net" class="">bob@bobtheis.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><div class=""> I’ve been mentioned twice in this thread, so I feel obliged to recap the summary of field reports of SB fires I gathered for Bruce King’s 2006 book, <i class="">Design of Straw Bale Buildings</i> ( Each of you DOES have a copy, right?? ) </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">There were fourteen fires in the survey, and it will surprise no one on this list that the best correlation of fire to damage was whether the bales were plastered. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Six fires occurred after plastering; of them, five had only local damage and one was a total loss ( in which the fire began with an electrical short in the roof framing, and the fire department felt obliged to demolish the bale walls, even though they were only smoldering )</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Eight fires occurred before plastering; of them, two had local damage and six were a total loss. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">As mentioned in David Arkin’s post, the biggest fire liability to bale walls are those damn sticks of wood we put up near them. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Bob</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div>_______________________________________________<br class="">Gsbn mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:Gsbn@sustainablesources.com" class="">Gsbn@sustainablesources.com</a><br class="">http://sustainablesources.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/gsbn<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></body></html>