Red diesel

[glenatron]

Last night someone tried to burn down the barn at the yard where we keep our horses. Not the barn with the horses in it, but the tractor barn just by it. They also, presumably with the intention of encouraging the flames, emptied the fuel tank- which had only just been filled a day or two back, releasing 3000 litres of diesel over the yard.

Fortunately, the fire didn't totally consume the barn, everyone has survived and diesel doesn't ignite very easily. The horses who live in the barn (Joe and Othello stay out in the field) were obviously distressed at the time but seemed quite happy when I cycled over this morning. Horses tend to be affected by shock quite slowly, though, so they will have to be closely watched for the next 24 hours. My heart goes out to the yard owners whose house is about 50 yards away. The groundworks are their main business and so having their tractor shed attacked is an absolute nightmare for them in every respect. They have also been working to sort things out since the early hours of the morning and they looked absolutely knackered.

The yard is at the end of the only road in a very tiny village, a couple of months ago the village cricket pavillion burned down and apparently there was another barn on the same road burnt a few weeks back so it sounds like one of the local children has developed a rather dangerous new hobby. Fortunately the police forensics team thought they might have found some useful evidence, so we can at least hope the arsonist is found before they attack someone else.

Update: Apparently the fire was hot enough for the diesel to catch and most of the machinery that survived was saved by the yard owner and his son driving various tractors and landrovers through sheets of flame- after they had rescued the oxygen tanks from the boats that were beside the wall where the fire was started.

Comments

[spoondog.livejournal.com]

Did any diesel get into the watercourse?
They could be in a world of trouble if it did.
Glad the horses are ok.

[life-of-tom.livejournal.com]

Shit. Well, I'm glad it's better than it could have been. Hope that this is the last of it...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Fortunately the diesel was on the road side rather than the stream side of the yard so it has flowed off down the road rather than down into the stream. That also means it stayed on sand and concrete rather than flowing onto the pasture.

By the time I got there they had already had Environmental Health in and put down whatever it is one puts down to catch diesel.

[kittyfantastico.livejournal.com]

I never cease to wonder at the stupidity of criminally-minded children. So stupid. A few years ago, there were a group of children in ontario who were setting stray cats on fire. One lived to have her kittens in an animal hospital later.

[spoon-doom.livejournal.com]

A kid in my year at school started doing this when he was fifteen. His dad had just died and he wasn't dealing with it very well. Obviously that doesn't make it ok but sometimes things like this are cries for help, rather than pure malice.

[stu-the-elder.livejournal.com]

I won't write my first reaction, it was animal and came from the Id. My second reaction was putting my fingers to the bridge of my nose, furrowing my brow, closing my eyes, and letting out a long slow sigh.

- Crump

[life-of-tom.livejournal.com]

hmm. rescuing tanks of oxygen from huge sheets of flame? That's some pretty impressive heroics from the people who run that place.
The venerable Spoon has reminded me, too, of the thread there was a while back on the fortean times website about the desecration of some megaliths. Apparently, some guy had gone about daubing a load of new age symbols, and swastikas, on stone circles in very hard-to-remove paint. a bunch of people posting on there were understandably outraged, and quite ready to go and beat the crap out of him, post threatening letters through his door, and had actually got quite a way towards planning their actions against him, until someone else piped up saying 'I know this guy, he's not very well at all. He really needs a doctor's help'.