Ontario firefighters burn barn for research

Maria Church  May 19, 2016  

May 19, 2016, Puslinch, Ont. – Three months after a barn fire in Puslinch, Ont., killed 43 racehorses and cost millions in damages, the community witnessed another burn – but this time it was for research.

In April, firefighters with Puslinch Fire and Rescue Service, in partnership with University of Waterloo researchers, conducted a controlled burn to study speed and temperature of fire spread in a barn.

Wellington County training officer Jonathan Karn, who was on hand for the burn as a safety officer, told one2one Photography filmmakers that four minutes after ignition, temperatures in the barn were around 1,200 C.

"All the combustibles inside the barn are now spontaneously igniting; we are probably maybe only 10 minutes away from a roof collapse," Karn said. "When you look at that in terms of a volunteer fire department we're maybe just getting the 911 call at this point."

Look for an in-depth report on this research in a future issue of Fire Fighting in Canada magazine.


*YouTube video by one2one Photography.