Expensive backfire A BARN, 40 tons of fertiliser and five tons of oats were destroyed at Tayinloan on Thursday – because a diesel engine backfired.
Farm-hand Malcolm McKinnon, 22, had just started a small engine used for bruising corn in a barn at Largie Farm, when it backfired and threw flames around him.
Malcolm attempted to extinguish the ensuing fire but was driven back by the heat and smoke. The alarm was raised and fire appliances from Campbeltown – 23 miles away – and Tarbert – 15 miles away – raced to the farm. By the time they arrived, the barn was a blazing inferno.