Putting out a burn pile. How many gallons of H2O?

[dmccarty]

The barn fire thread prompted me to ask this question.

How many gallons of water would it take to put out a burn pile that was smouldering?

What I have been doing is burning large piles of trees/limbs/etc.
When they burn down I bury what is smoldering, mainly coals,
with dirt. Works great.

The problem is that I have some areas that don't have the
dirt to put out the fire.

It looks like I need a 100-200 gallon water tank to get H20 to
the property so I can mix concrete.

Would 200 gallons of water smoother a smouldering fire that was
10 feet by 10 feet? How about 20 feet by 20 feet? 30x30?

The fire MIGHT have large still burning but it would be almost all
coals.

Thanks,
Dan McCarty

 

[Bob_In_MN]

Dan,

I can't tell you what is enough water, but I can tell you what is not enough.

My father-in-law started a fire in one of my burning pits( an old silo ring that's about 10 feet across). It was early enough in the year that I did not have the hose hooked up so I filled up two 5 gallon buckets with water and did the trip 15 times for a total of 150 gallons of water.

Fast forward to the following day when the winds pick up, a small ember takes flight and takes out nearly an acre of my grassland. All I can say is I have new appreciation for the local volunteer fire department. As a matter of fact, I have my app in to join.

So--my new formula is pour water on it until it is the consistency of stew. When I'm done, there's absolutely no coals remaining (buried or otherwise).

My father-in-law was lucky--the area that burned was the exact area I was planning on turning into lawn. But--I still give him (the father-in-law) the needle from time to time and no one burns on my property without first getting a burning permit.

Bob

 

[RonR]

Old Story: (condensed from my memory)

Seems a local farmer's patch caught on fire. Wife calls the city department, which can't come due to jurisdiction, then calls the county, which can't come for awhile, due to current fire, and finally calls the local volunteer group.
The volunteer group shows up in this rickety old firetruck, turns into the field, drives right into the middle of the fire, grinding to a stop right in the midst of the flames. Volunteers jump of the truck and frantically fight the fire all around them, bringing it under control before it consumes their truck.
Grateful for the tremendous show of force from the volunteers, the farmer writes a $1000 check and presents it to the volunteer leader.

The volunteer fire chief gratefully accepts the check, and proudly announces that the FIRST thing they will do is fix the BRAKES on their old truck!

Ron

 

[dmccarty]

Re: Putting out a burn pile. How many gallons of

Bob,

That is good info.

I always get a burn permit. I have more permits than I have had
fires. I would get the permits in advance but on the burn
day the weather would be wrong for some reason so no fire.

Even then the weather can get you. One day the winds where
forcast to be very minimal. I started the fire. Most of the fires
so far burn big for 60-120 minutes and then die down to a more
nonscary event. After about 30 minutes the wind KICKED up
and scared the hoohey out of me. I always burn after rains
so the forest was wet and more wet so the embers did not
start any problems but its still scary....

The NC Forestry department now has the permits on line so it
makes it much easier to do the paper work!

200 gallons plus the FEL will allow me to make a nice mud pie.



Thanks,
Dan

 

[Junkman]

Re: Putting out a burn pile. How many gallons of

Anyone have any thoughts about burning during a snow storm? I have a lot of brush to get rid of, but don't have any way to get a hose to the burn site... Would this be a viable alternative????? thanks.. Junkman

 

[Bob_In_MN]

Re: Putting out a burn pile. How many gallons of

Dan,

Sounds like you'll have it about covered. Fires sure are nice to have this time of year, but I agree that they can get scary. When my fire happened it was windy as well. I looked out the window and saw smoke. I went to get the hose connector (20 seconds) and when I came back the fire was outside the ring by 10 feet and traveling fast. I threw the hose connector down and called 911 (another minute). By the time I hung up the phone the fire had raced another 100 feet. By the time I saw the first truck pull up (about 10 minutes), the fire was heading for a distant neighbors shed and if his water wasn't turned on, it would have taken the shed.

I couldn't believe just how fast this stuff travels.

Junkman,

I haven't had fire during a snow storm, but I did burn a large brush pile when we first moved into our house. The pile was out in the open and about as large as a single car garage. We had several feet of snow on the ground so we lit it and tended to it most of the afternoon and evening. The snow made a nice barrier.

Bob

 

[dmccarty]

Re: Putting out a burn pile. How many gallons of

junkman,

I thought about burning after a snowstorm but the problem was
that the pile to be torched was covered in SNOW!!!!

DUH! On my part.

What I would try to do now is cover the burn pile with tarps
prior to the snow storm..... I wish I had thought of that earlier!


I have enough tarps to do this I just have to remember to
cover the pile.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Re: Putting out a burn pile. How many gallons of

One of my neighbors burned a really big pile with large timbers
and stumps. He really should not have been doing it. I was
talking with him and the fire caught onto some grass and
started moving out real fast. He was prepared with shovels and
5 gallon containers of water but that is all...

I start up the tractor and move it near the burn pile. I mow
around the pile as low as possible. I start the fire on one end
of the pile and let it burn to the other. DON'T use gas to start
the fire!!! For the first two hours I don't leave the burn. Most
of the time in the first two hours the fire will get high and the
burn down. After a few hours I'll bulldoze the fire with the FEL
to push stuff into the fire. Otherwise I use a shovel. I wear
a chainsaw helmet and chaps to keep the heat off. And that
barely works.

Depending on the size of the stuff to burn its really done in
6-8 hours. I bulldoze what is left into a big pile and bury in
dirt.

Then I turn off the tractor. I don't turn off the tractor
until the fire is out or burned down enough that I can take care
of it with a shovel. With the FEL and the box blade I know
I can clear earth real quick if the fire gets out of hand near
the burn pile. If its in the woods its another matter!!!!!! 8-(

Later,
Dan

 

[Currmudgeon]

The amount of water you need depends a lot on how you apply the water. If you just sluice it on, it will take a lot more than if you apply it carefully to where it is needed.

For putting out ember piles, I like to spray until the top is dark, then rake and spray some more. That mixes the water into the coals, cooling and eventually wetting the whole mass.

We used to do this at Scout camp. You wanted to use the water efficiently because, if you ran out, someone had to go back to the hydrant with half a dozen Indian pumps, refill them, and schlep them back out.

 

[theonlybull]

honestly, 200 gallons dosen't put out much of a fire... fine on a grass fire, but not anywhere there's concentrated heat.

at our fire hall, we have 2 pumpers with 1000 gallons ( canadian gallons) and a tanker with 2000 gallons. and belive me it doesn't take long to use up a truckload of water. our trucks can pump upto 1050 gallons per minute, and we have master streams that can use over 1100 gallons per minute.

one 1 1/2" hand line ( minimum size for an attack line) will flow around 110 gpm.

that should give ya a little idea how much water it takes fighting a fire..

one other thing to be carefull of, when burying a smoldering fire with dirt, is that the dirt DOES NOT put out the fire.. the hot coals will last for weeks, or even month's under ground.

2 years ago, there was a bad fire that started from a buried burn pile, a farmer had covered over a month b4....