blow touch disaster

[thurrock bees]

Hi all
I use a roofers blow torch and yesterday disaster stuck, the blow torch fell from its resting place on to my shed, the result was total right off of two sheds containing all my spare equipment and half my main shed badly damaged. the fire service did a great job trying to save what they could and was given two jars of honey as a thank you, it all took less than 4-5 minutes, I lost the following

40 ekes
40 feeders
20 14 x 12 brood boxes
25 roofs
20 supers
8 poly nucs
17 floors.
leason lreant for sure

 

[dpearce4]

Soo sorry to see the damage, the good thing is that you wernt inside at the time but im sure that is no consolation to the equipment lost. Did you have any insurance for it?

doug

 

[pargyle]

Good grief .... Mind you, those roofers blow torches have a very large spread of flame ... were you flaming hive parts ? I tend to use a plumbers propane torch with a paint stripping spreader on it ... not quite so hairy. I also do it outside on a temporary bench I can put up anywhere .. basically a bit of laminate worktop that mounts in my Workmate.

Hindsight is 100& science isn't it .... perhaps we should have a thread on here 'It seemed like a good idea at the time ...."

Anyway, commiserations for your massive loss and credit to you for going public - lesson for all of us here ...

 

[thurrock bees]

I was blow torching outside near the sheds, I use the roofers torch as its quicker and cheaper to cleaning say 10-20 brood boxes along with the Queen excluders etc

 

[REDWOOD]

Life sucks and all that, I'll try and be a bit more careful when I use my roofers torch in future, Hope you get it sorted soon without loss adjusters making a pigs ear of it

 

[thurrock bees]

the picture with the fireman in shows the gap where a large shed was once....... all that's left is a gap and a pile of charcoal

As for insurance there is none sadly, so ive just priced it all up and with out the supers and the sheds it come to £3644 !! all gone

 

[pargyle]

I was blow torching outside near the sheds, I use the roofers torch as its quicker and cheaper to cleaning say 10-20 brood boxes along with the Queen excluders etc

Like I said, hindsight is a 100% science .... having said that I shall be doubly careful in the future even when outside !!!

 

[thurrock bees]

Like I said, hindsight is a 100% science .... having said that I shall be doubly careful in the future even when outside !!!

I will be doing it a LOT futher away from now on,

 

[Heather]

So sorry.
There is someone local to B.H. selling decent 2nd hand stuff if you need emergency replacements. May get a good deal from him as he is a great chap, retiring from years of bee keeping. Pm if you interested.

 

[isc26]

House insurance???

 

[Batcher]

Really feel for you. :-( Hope you get back to normal.. At least you were not caught up in it.

 

[SireeDubs]

Really feel for you. :-( Hope you get back to normal.. At least you were not caught up in it.

Am total scaredy cat with blow torch and use it in the middle of the field - but my gear shares shed with a petrol mower and jerry can.

Hope you can replace reasonably, even better if house insurance can cough up.

 

[thurrock bees]

Ive not checked the house insurance yet. But im planning for the worse. I would be interested in the gent who is retiring. . I tried to tackle the fire but it very quickly got out of control. From start of the fire to the fire service putting it out with two engines were 4/5 minutes. I cant believe how fast six years worth of work can go up in smoke. I had some very minor burns to my hands but no one was injured and the fire service were pleased i manages to drag the gas cylinder away and switch the elecitic off.

 

[Heather]

pm sent

 

[richardbees]

commiserations, Thurrock

and what bleak photos!

- reminds me not to be so casual about leaving my lit smoker lying around after finishing.

 

[BeeJayBee]

Wow, amazing how quick it was, but then I suppose dry wood with traces of wax goes up quickly. I'm sorry you lost so much equipment, and I hope the insurers will do the right thing.

 

[Pete D]

Bloody hell, sorry to see all that mate.

I have about a dozen 14x12 broods, some floors, few roofs, 10 poly nucs and maybe a dozen supers that you can borrow if you need equipment in a hurry.
I also have flat pack supers, floors, std brood and frames to match all 3 boxes that you can have if you replace them during the next sales.

Bad luck mate

 

[psafloyd]

Ive not checked the house insurance yet. But im planning for the worse. I would be interested in the gent who is retiring. . I tried to tackle the fire but it very quickly got out of control. From start of the fire to the fire service putting it out with two engines were 4/5 minutes. I cant believe how fast six years worth of work can go up in smoke. I had some very minor burns to my hands but no one was injured and the fire service were pleased i manages to drag the gas cylinder away and switch the elecitic off.

Saw the mess on Facebook, Thurrock. Hadn't realised it was you.

Not surprised it went up. All that wax and propolis is just waiting for the hint of a spark.

 

[thurrock bees]

Saw the mess on Facebook, Thurrock. Hadn't realised it was you.

Not surprised it went up. All that wax and propolis is just waiting for the hint of a spark.

hi psafloyd yes that's me sadly lol, the spare hives were also dry to that did not help.

TB aka Harveys bee farm

 

[gandalfwhitewizard]

TB,

We had a similar experience years ago when we 'thought' we'd put the smoker remains out in an incinerator bin only to find our neighbour banging our door down to tell us that our fence was alight. Damage one Beehaus...Home Insurance covered the damage so might be worth checking with them..
Feel your pain hope you get back up and running

GW