Agricultural Affaires

The leaves may already be falling this autumn, but subrogation potential does not need to fall through the cracks. Spring and Fall are the seasons with typically the greatest number of agricultural fires and failure claims. The Office of the Fire Marshal and Emergency Management (OFMEM) tracks the fire incidents in Ontario and indicates that there are approximately 80 reported fires involving barns housing livestock with an estimated loss of 18.5 million each year. This is but a fraction of the yearly potential agricultural insurance losses incurred by Ontario farmers.

Caskanette Udall Consulting Engineers has extensive experience with agricultural structural fires and is well trained to investigate the origin and the cause of farm equipment fires. Farm equipment regularly involved in fires include: grain dryers, combines, and tractors. These fires not only destroy the expensive farm equipment but often spread and damage surrounding structures and equipment, and sometimes even result in costly environmental contamination. If a manufacturer deficiency, an installation defect, or if recent service work has contributed to the fire, subrogation is often a potential avenue that can be pursued to recover the associated damage costs.

Caskanette Udall also specializes in investigating the cause of agricultural equipment failures. Since all equipment failures are unique, our experience in combination with our attention to detail make us the ideal candidate to assist you with determining the root cause of a particular failure.

Some examples of recent equipment and system failures that we have investigated include: livestock feed systems, grain elevators, grain spouts, silo unloaders, and closed loop hot water heating systems.