Extinguishing a brush fire with a lawn tractor

[Gary Fowler]

The only thing I can imagine worse than burning up my $2000 lawn mower would be to burn up my $43000 tractor.

I was referring to the little grass fire like in the photo, not trying to put out a forest fire. A small time fire like that could be snuffed out easily with the FEL floating along on the ground and no flames would be getting to the tractor. Anything that you could put out with wet burlap would easily be killed with the FEL. It might be required to run back over the burn line again to knock down the flare ups.
I routinely punch up a burning brush pile with the FEL with nothing other than a little black charcoal on the FEL to show for it.

[yelbike]

I can recall two incidents from burning grass. First time I tried to put it out with the mower, worked fine until the clipping on top of the mower deck caught fire. Kicked off the little fire and put the tractor away after that. Second time larger fire reignited and headed towards a bluff where we stored our trailer in a opening within it. I was "smart" this time, I use the fel and dragged the bucket over the flames. Again worked great until I stalled. Not by lack of oxygen but by lack of RPMs. Restarting seemed to take a long time(had to try twice, second attempt in neutral). My heart was in my throat when it stalled, but I would have lost the RV and trailers had it really got away from me.

Moral of the story tractor don't make good fire extinguishers!

[Gale Hawkins]

I can recall two incidents from burning grass. First time I tried to put it out with the mower, worked fine until the clipping on top of the mower deck caught fire. Kicked off the little fire and put the tractor away after that. Second time larger fire reignited and headed towards a bluff where we stored our trailer in a opening within it. I was "smart" this time, I use the fel and dragged the bucket over the flames. Again worked great until I stalled. Not by lack of oxygen but by lack of RPMs. Restarting seemed to take a long time(had to try twice, second attempt in neutral). My heart was in my throat when it stalled, but I would have lost the RV and trailers had it really got away from me.

Moral of the story tractor don't make good extinguishers!

Your restart story reminded me of my dad bunching up a live dozer pile fire that was quite hot. He was using a reversed grader blade on an 1962 801 Ford which worked great until it died on him. The rear red tail light lens was already melting and some how he could still think clear enough to trouble shoot the problem and got off the tractor and checked the fuel shut off valve. That was the first and last time that valve ever closed by itself in the life of the tractor but the fuel shut off some how clicked to the OFF position when the tractor was in a fire.

He flipped it back to on and got on the very hot tractor by now and started it and parked it in a cool place for a while.

Working equipment in a live fire environmental is risky on ALL levels.

[ovrszd]

I remember one day in High school, the teacher came in and asked all able bodied males above 9the grade to turn out and be hauled to a fire scene. I was given a wet burlap bag, and we fought a grass/brush fire for about an hour. We all thought it was fun, can you imagine what would happen in today's world if the school asked the kids to go to put out a fire?.. times have changed..

James K0UA

And changed for the worst I'm afraid. Didn't hurt you a bit did it.

[k0ua]

And changed for the worst I'm afraid. Didn't hurt you a bit did it.

we were all fine, and thought it was a lot of fun to get out of class and do a "mans" job.

James K0UA

[3930dave]

we were all fine, and thought it was a lot of fun to get out of class and do a "mans" job.

James K0UA

What !!!

Make a Decision / Take direct Action / Complete a Meaningful Task !

We'd have extraneous productivity breaking out all over if that was still the case !



I remember, at about 11 years old, being on my Uncle's farm for summer vacation. Call came, so went up to the village, and he got out the Fire tanker, and we drove down to the local dump. Turns out, the old timer minding the dump had a small grass fire start to get away from him. Once we made sure that the old feller wasn't going into cardiac arrest, my uncle and I put out the fire - just hustled with shovels, and the sand base soil.

Laid some water down surrounding the burn area, filled the tanker back up at the river, drove back to the Hall. First time I saw a split shifter. Really cool day, for an 11 y/o.

Back then, I'm pretty sure none of the local volunteers got paid for Fire duty. Even more so than these details, what I remember the most about that day was that my Uncle (RIP, a great guy) did all that just as a reflex.

Times, education, and people, have changed.

Rgds, D.

[ovrszd]

The town my school was in had a three block long paved Main Street Business District. In the Spring the High School FFA would take an afternoon off from classes and go uptown to work with the Volunteer Fire Department washing down Main Street with fire hoses and brooms. It was a great community project and the two gas stations and one grocery store would hand out free pop, candy bars and ice cream bars.

[TomSeller]

Maybe he can't see so well and has replaced his blade with a weed burner to make for a more clearly defined line of where he last mowed.... errr,, burned.

[Don87]

Lack of oxygen was also an issue for me back then.

Is that the 'official' story?

Rumors have it as 'Mary Jane'

[Don87]

I couldn't resist^^^^^^^^ was just too easy