Burn Pile near catastrophe

[turnkey4099]

So much for best laid plans. Today was going to be my 2nd try at burning my huge piles.

Saturday night I was looking at about 1" of snow, not as much as I wanted but willing to accept it. Sunday morning most of that was gone and the wind was up in the 20 mph range. Cancelled plans.

Last night Went to bed at 2 am looking at about 3" and calm wind. In the morning for sure! Nope. Up an hour ago and looking at a minimum of 8" and still snowing. Cancelled plans again.

I am going to have to spend a lot of time clearing the drive instead. At least it should be a Kodak moment as the stuff looks fluffy so the blower plumes should be pretty. Now if I can just get the beast started. Kept telling myself to get it un-mothballed but...

Harry K

 

[patrick_g]

Harry, a couple weeks ago I torced off a large pile(7 loads on my 18+ ft util trailer) in the back yard and got flames as high as 30-40 ft for a short time. I have renewed the pile with more loads and have more to haul.

It was abouit 67F overnight here but tonight will be below freezing and the thermometer is headed for the teens according to the weather guys. OKC temps have fallen over 40 degrees this morning and our turn is coming soon as the first winter storm hits south central Oklahoma. We could get as much as 2-3 inches of snow. If we do AND the wind dies down before it melts I will be torching the pile again.

Last spring before my nutso neighbor "ate his pistol" he burned his trash in a barrel during a governor imposed statewide burn ban and burned off 30 acres of one of my pastures. I was accumulating fuel for a CONTROLLED burn so it really went up big time. The VFD had a time with it. It went across the width of the field, over 1/8 mile, and onto a neighbor who is in the VFD and was fighting this fire.

I have a few years experience with controlled burns of pastures but there is always something to learn and getting too rambunctious has a way of bringing out opportunities to learn. Discretion is the better part of valor.

I hope extant conditions support your goals soon.

Pat

 

[SkyPup]

One thing about managing a fire is to be there all the time until the coals are cold.

Sometimes this means working the fire all day and all night for days on end like this:

 

[patrick_g]

Sky Pup, Not being in 3 D I can't tell from the pix but in some it looks like the heat would be getting to the overhanging branches.

Ideally a fire is not out till in the words of Smokey The Bear, it is DEAD OUT. When you are doing a controlled burn of 40 to 400 hundred acres and downed logs and dead trees are involved you don't have the luxury of ensuring that there is not a glowing ember somewhere.

About the best you can do from a practical standpoint is to exercise management by exception which is where you concentrate your management effort on the exceptional cases and let the not so important go less attended, a rationing through priorities, not unlike triage.

The goal is to get a nice wide "Good Black" all around the perimeter by employing various controlled burn techniques as applicable to the particular circumstances. The next priority is to get as good a burn as possible within the area surrounded by this good black.

Typically, man power limitations are such that you can't keep a close watch on everything all the time, especially as some of the stuff may smolder for a couple days or more. This is why it is so important to get a good black all around so that any changes in wind speed or direction will not let the fire out of the established perimeter.

So far the smallest contingent on scene during the most active portion of a controlled burn in which I have participated has been two tractors with spray rigs, 3 each 4 wheelers, and 2-3 drip torches. Some of us wear more than one hat and you may work a drip torch for a while and later drive a tractor to respond to potential problem areas identified by your radio equipped "eyes on wheels" (two of the 4 wheelers who do nothing but ride around to look things over and report via radio.) We have some truck mudflaps on long poles for beating on fires, rakes, shovels and such too.

The standard accepted rate of pay for showing up and participating several hours is the expectation that you can get the same help when you need it, plus cold Gator Ade, sodas, snacks, and an offer of an all you can eat catfish dinner the next Friday night at the local emporium of fine food.

The burn pile location I am using repetitively is in my back yard. The house is surrounded by a circular drive (firebreak) and the burn pile is backed up to two ponds within garden hose reach of the nearest hydrant. There are only a couple possible avenues where the fire could potentially get out of the containment area and those can be hosed down.

A large hot fire sends columns of embers pretty high so I have to mind the weather pretty closely and wait for rain or heavy dew and high humidity as well as low wind with a northern component in it (keep smoke away from house and fresh air intake ducts.) We are about to get rain and or snow in the next two days with temps dropping from overnight lows of 65F to the teens day and night. This will be a good opportunity to torch off a really big burn with 20-30 dead trees over a foot in diameter plus a lot of smaller stuff. I am consolidating brush piles to feed this one.

Pat

 

[Champy]

Also - don't forget to consider using your VFD to do the burning for you in the first place..... many times they will welcome the opportunity for burning down an old barn or slash pile as a part of the training / experience process.

 

[turnkey4099]

Harry, a couple weeks ago I torced off a large pile(7 loads on my 18+ ft util trailer) in the back yard and got flames as high as 30-40 ft for a short time. I have renewed the pile with more loads and have more to haul.

It was abouit 67F overnight here but tonight will be below freezing and the thermometer is headed for the teens according to the weather guys. OKC temps have fallen over 40 degrees this morning and our turn is coming soon as the first winter storm hits south central Oklahoma. We could get as much as 2-3 inches of snow. If we do AND the wind dies down before it melts I will be torching the pile again.

Last spring before my nutso neighbor "ate his pistol" he burned his trash in a barrel during a governor imposed statewide burn ban and burned off 30 acres of one of my pastures. I was accumulating fuel for a CONTROLLED burn so it really went up big time. The VFD had a time with it. It went across the width of the field, over 1/8 mile, and onto a neighbor who is in the VFD and was fighting this fire.

I have a few years experience with controlled burns of pastures but there is always something to learn and getting too rambunctious has a way of bringing out opportunities to learn. Discretion is the better part of valor.

I hope extant conditions support your goals soon.

Pat

Things lookiong good for it. Ideal conditions today as there is a good 6" out there after settling, no wind and snowing lightly. Problem is that the temp is slowly creeping up from sub-zero and is still in single digits. Ain't gonna go when it is that cold. Would be all right after getting the piles going but I would freeze until then. Wx report says that at least the rest of the week will allow it. Temps in the mid 20s so I should get a day or two in there. I hae lost track of how many huge piles I have but there are 5 plus a couple smaller in one area alone. Would like to get those on day 1.

The area I am working is an old overgrown bottom land patch of 5 or more acres that had a fire go through about 5 or 6 years ago. Landowner agreement is "take everything" but leave the area clean with stumps cut near flush. Just about done with it, probably finish this coming year.

Harry K

 

[KubotaSteve]

The fire chief for the local fire department lives across the road from me so I try to stay on my toes. He's a pretty cool guy. I've had one fire on my property and asked him to help me. He was there with their brush truck and an engine just in case. I couldn't get the fire going, he ended up using a blower and had it blazing in no time . After that, I just started piling everything at the back of my land and let it rot. I couldn't believe how fast branches rot. Any large pieces of wood (except pine) dad burn's in his wood stove. The brush pile gives the animals a place for shelter.

 

[patrick_g]

Champy, The VFD has had a workout since we are in a drought that is the worst in over 100 years. The Oklahoma Cattlemans Association has successfully lobbied the Governer's office for discretion in the statewide burn ban. Now when conditions warrant over a significant area the ban has been temporarily relaxed on an area buy area basis.

There are so many folks who burn pasture and brush piles it is too much to expect the VFD to take care of it. We have fairly recently started to initiate formal "Burn Associations" where association members are offered training and help one another with controlled burns.

My ad hoc group has not joined and some of our regular participants don't ever do there own burns but the principals have attended multiple all day seminars in controlled burning

We take controlled burns quite seriously. Whoever lights the match is liable for any consequences to other owners or the public. As a part of our preparation for a burn we author a formal burn plan (along the guidance of the Noble Foundation) detailing all pertinent facts. Copies are provided to the county sherrif, local law, VFD, all adjoining land owners, and anyone else provident to inform.

Yesterday it was 75F and we had a south wind and overnight lows of 65. Last night we had rain, sleet, and snow with overnight temps of about 22-25F. If it were not for the wind, I'd be out back trying to light the burn pile as the ground is mostly white and would not support the spread of fire from airborn embers. With any luck I'll catch a calm day before the snow melts too much.

The VFD is usually available to help with burning an old structure as it is valuable training and not so nebulous of a task.

Pat

 

[turnkey4099]

Finally made it out to the wood patch yesterday. Cold, cold drive through dense fog (had to stop and scrape widshield as the defroster couldn't keep up with the fog freezing).

Wasn't bad after I got the first two piles going and by the time I had 7 lit off I was stripping coats, etc. off.

It is a wonder I am even here today. I stopped on the way out to fill up a 5 gal can of diesel and figured why not fill the 5 gal utility with gas. Although the cans both have very distinctive spouts, I managed to grab the wrong one. Started two piles with gas then when back and added gas to the first fire TWICE! Didn't catch my mistake until I saw a flame flickering out of the gas can spout! Slapped my glove over it then sat down with cofee until my knees stopped shaking.

Knees got a bit shaky again when I tried my cell phone and found "no service". Odd as I had used the CP several times in the same location last summer. The thought of what could have happened...

At least 7 piles are gone with either 4 or 5 to go. I will never again try to do 7 at a time. I came home 5 hours later so beat out with tending fire by boosting chunks and stuff into the fires with a pitch fork that I could hardly move. At least I don't have to wonder if I got my docs "excercise" requirement met

Harry K

 

[Soundguy]

Glad you made it out with no burns. Someone was watchin' out fer ya today.

soundguy