The True Cost of Fires on Farm – Mathew Beale (Chippenham)

In 2003, I was working as a tractor driver on an arable farm.  It was the hottest, driest summer I can remember in my lifetime.  Harvest had gone very smoothly with all oilseed rape, barley and wheat combined within 2 weeks.

I remember my boss talking one morning earlier in the summer how he was expecting there to be a lot of farm fires this harvest because of the weather conditions.  I don’t think he ever thought there would be two on his own farm, however.

The first was on a Saturday afternoon while combining some spring barley.  A piece of flint had gone through the combine causing a spark and setting alight 8 acres of crop.  Because of the quick thinking and response of fire crews, no machinery was damaged, and we were able to carry on with harvest later that afternoon.

However, a few days later, I was attempting to round bale the last field of wheat.  The straw was so brittle that it was a nightmare trying to feed it into the baler.  Then the worst happened.  I saw smoke pouring out from one of the side doors of the baler.  Within seconds the baler was well alight!  I remember being in a panic and by this point the only thing I could do was to try to save the tractor.  Somehow, I managed to get the tractor off.  The baler was gone, as was about another 10 acres of straw.

We worked out that a bearing was damaged and caused the fire.  New figures show the cost of farm fires have risen by 40% in 2020, costing £69m.  Electrical fires were a major contributor to these figures.  Agricultural vehicles accounted for an extra £20m in insurance claims.

Whilst these figures seem horrifying on their own, if you add other costs that are uninsured, the costs to a farmer would be a lot more than having to replace a piece of machinery or the loss of some straw.  The first, and most obvious extra cost would be an increase in insurance premiums.  But if you take into account the loss in time, workforce unable to continue with the job, therefore costing in extra overtime, the cost soon starts rising.

We all know that maintenance is important, but when things are busy, will that tractor have a full check, or will it just be visually checked.  Under the provision of use of work equipment regulations 1998, the employer has a duty over all work equipment.  The equipment must be suitable and safe for use, maintained in a good working order and accompanied by health and safety measures.  Meaning all equipment must be safe to use.  As part of this, regular servicing and maintenance is an essential part of complying with regulations.

To help with this, written documentation of what servicing needs to be done, and records of what has been done are a key part in keeping legal and hopefully saving all the extra costs associated with a machine breakdown or worse, a machine catching fire.

At the rural compliance service, we offer help with record keeping of machinery.  From inventories of machines on farm, to servicing and maintenance schedules and finally to templates for recording all servicing and maintenance carried out.  This is part of our service which can include all health and safety documentation to make your farm compliant with regulations and help make your farms a safer working environment.  Contact Mathew at mathewbeale@fcgagric.com for more information about this very useful service.