Yard owner Tori Peter has urged on social media for all yard owners to make sure they have a fire safety plan in place after a fire at her yard recently.
In the space of 15 minutes our hay store went from a tiny puff of smoke to 30’ blaze. The hay-store is attached to one of my blocks of stables fully occupied with horses. Everyone was in bed and all this was happening without anyone knowing at 5:50am on Saturday morning.
Luckily someone had arrived on the yard to feed the horses early, who noticed the fire and took action and called Tori, who put her fire plan in place and called the fire brigade.
I have had 2 different fire drills in my head for many years depending on which end of my yard the fire was at. Thank god I had a plan as it worked perfectly. I’m not sure I would have been able to think on my feet quick enough to come up with something in all the panic.
The reason I want this story to travel is simple. If I hadn’t have been there, no one would have had a plan. I was the key, what if I hadn’t have been there? I have been on 3 professional large yards with timber stables and poor storage. No one ever ran a fire drill on any of these yards. Fire drills depend on where on the yard the fire is, so it’s no good having one single plan. Would a teenager arriving at the yard early faced with our situation know what to do?? We need to push for fire drills.
Please push your livery yard to run a fire drill and look at the different scenarios. Have a plan A, a plan B and a plan C if needed and make sure you all know it. It’s no good the yard owners/managers having a plan and not being there 24/7. Every livery needs to know the plan.
You can read Tori’s full account and warning here
You can find a huge amount of Health and safety information on the Yard Owner Hub to help you put processes in place for such situations. This includes free guidance and information on Risk Assessments and Fire Safety
