George Young of Fobbing Farm.

"When I heard about the Fireward system, and that they were looking to start fitting these to combines, this was a no brainer for me! We run a Claas 660, and as anyone who runs a Claas knows, they like catching fire- even more so when you put hemp and linseed through them. Knowing that there was an automatic fire suppression system for a combine seemed like a really good idea to me.

So, the cool thing about the Fireward system is that it acts within just a few seconds and puts that fire out. We’ve had some little fires in this combine in the past, which we’ve managed to put out, luckily, we spotted them in time and used a bit of water. It would be very easy for the whole combine to go up in flames. I can’t imagine the heartache and headache that would cause during harvest when you massively pushed for time anyway. You would really need to get back on the land, you’re struggling to even find another combine to do some work for you. The idea that you know your fires going to be put out and you’ve only got a few hours downtime just to clean off the engine and get everything sorted again and that there are no damaged components, it’s just super.

"The idea that you know your fires going to be put out and you’ve only got a few hours downtime just to clean off the engine and get everything sorted again and that there are no damaged components, it’s just superb.”

George Young – Fobbing Farm Essex

So, in terms of installation, this has been an absolute breeze, it’s taken Fireward about two days to fit this system, it’s an easy bolt-on system. As well as that, the cost comes in at about 2% of the cost of this machine when it was new. A small investment which I’m hoping maybe the insurers will pay some attention to in the future because of the idea of a lower premium and the insurers being a bit happier that they are less likely to be forking out for a brand-new machine."