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msar-riders - Re: [MSAR] MSAR - Barn Fires versus wildfires

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Subject: Mounted search and rescue

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  • From: Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>
  • To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [MSAR] MSAR - Barn Fires versus wildfires
  • Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 22:12:55 -0600

Chris Pennington wrote:
> You MUST secure
>them somewhere out of harms way or they will return to their stalls.

The 60-head polo barn where I learned the rudiments of stable
management had an interesting strategy in place for this. On
a fairly regular basis, at least every 6 months but sometimes
more often, they rearranged the horses among the stalls! And
the horses were trained to turn out into the arena as a group.
Open the gates from the barn to the arena, close all the other
gates, and open all the stall doors, starting with the stalls
farthest from the arena.

The barn has wood interior framing and overhead storage of
hay and shavings. It is an obvious fire trap. The arena is
primarily cinderblock, steel, tin, glass, and dirt, and it
has an overhead sprinkler system. The horses cannot be sent
outside due to the consequent high risk of injury to first
responders and spontaneous volunteers and onlookers from the
surrounding urban neighborhood.

A fellow horseman and professional firefighter tells me that
in a wildfire it is not the flames nor the smoke that kill the
most people and animals: it is the consumption of all oxygen
in the immediate vicinity of the fire. Find yourself in a
pocket of "safety" within a ring of fire, and you can consider
yourself in a trap and probably dead.

Anyway, back to the gentleman with the mustangs. In Incident
Command System terms, it appears he already has a good plan.
And he is still a good way away from needing to go operational.
Between plans and operations is logistics. That is the stage
he is in now: identifying and contacting specific resources,
namely large rig stock haulers, who can transport his 130 head
with relative safety and efficiency. He needs to get in touch
with professional livestock haulers, rodeo outfitters, and
others who have such large rigs.

Una Smith
New Mexico




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