From left, Chief Ken Brown, Fire Marshal Phil Paquette, and Deputy Chief Eddie Ferguson listen as Jennifer Newton and her husband, veterinarian Tom Newton, address the crowd Saturday.

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A new focus on barn fire safety in Goochland has emerged, thanks in large part to Fire Marshall Phil Paquette and a hard-working committee including Jennifer Newton and Sherry Sackett.

A year’s worth of effort culminated in a safety seminar and equipment demonstrations at Deep Run Hunt Club Saturday morning.

Over 100 residents turned out to hear two hours of tips by Paquette, Newton, her husband and veterinarian Tom Newton, Goochland Fire Chief Ken Brown,  and Deputy Chief Eddie Ferguson.

Part of the Newtons’ interest stemmed from their own barn tragedy in 1992, when they lost two horses. The couple own Little Hawk Farm.

“Our program is divided into four parts: prevention, preparedness, the incident and the aftermath,” said Jennifer Newton.

Ferguson detailed tips for barn and horse owners, which included storing flammables away from the barn, using fire detectors, cleaning and avoiding smoking in or near the farm buildings.
He went on to mention the importance of sprinklers, alarms, heat detectors, and proper electrical cabling and outlets.

“Catching straw bedding on fire is like lighting gasoline,” Ferguson said. “Wood shavings are better and slower to ignite.”

Ferguson also detailed how straw can burn a ten-foot diameter circle in three minutes.

“It only takes 30 seconds to kill a horse,” he said.

Ferguson added that preparedness helps in the event of a fire.

“Just giving the 9-1-1 operator the right address and directions to the fire is critical,” he said. “We send out three companies to structural fires so that we have manpower and water at the beginning of a fire.”

Fire-Rescue personnel recommended proper posting of addresses on the road and having someone out in front to guide firefighters into the property.

“We need a 12 foot width and 13 foot height on your property so that our equipment can clear and not get hung up,” Ferguson said.

Goochland County has 72 strategically-placed dry hydrants, which is close to the highest number in the state, Brown said.

He described a dry hydrant as a pipe with a strainer leading out of a pond. Although normally dry, a suction hose from a pumper will draw water through the pipe and fill tanker trucks.
“These dry hydrants are critical to quickly getting additional water to a fire,” he said.

Other tips were also shared, including a computer-driven demonstration by Fire-X, one of the vendors on hand.