Burn piles

[ponytug]

For me, it is more about not having livestock graze the nails...

 

[Richard]

A day or so ago, I saw a news article... as I recall the article, a husband/wife (I think a child?) were burning some things outdoors. Dad walked away for whatever reason. I think it said they had put another log onto the fire but the log wasn't lighting quickly enough.

Wife grabbed a gas can and tossed some onto fire to presumably light the log (on an already hot fire) and the can ignited causing burns on both her and child. I think it said the can exploded and She (mother/wife) died.

As I was reading that story, I hadn't gotten to the end but knew what was coming and it literally got my eyes watering. So terribly tragic, sad and preventable.

 

[RjCorazza]

A day or so ago, I saw a news article... as I recall the article, a husband/wife (I think a child?) were burning some things outdoors. Dad walked away for whatever reason. I think it said they had put another log onto the fire but the log wasn't lighting quickly enough.

Wife grabbed a gas can and tossed some onto fire to presumably light the log (on an already hot fire) and the can ignited causing burns on both her and child. I think it said the can exploded and She (mother/wife) died.

As I was reading that story, I hadn't gotten to the end but knew what was coming and it literally got my eyes watering. So terribly tragic, sad and preventable.

Sad... I read that article also. People become complacent with dangerous items or materials that they deal with on a frequent basis, until it goes south.
My gasoline complacency experience years ago was refueling a hot lawn mower... No injuries, but it was an eye opener.

 

[deezler]

I'll never understand why people use gasoline on fires. I suppose if it's the only accelerant you have on hand, you might think it's normal. But diesel fuel burns great without the explosiveness. Same for lighter fluid. I bought a weed-burner torch that runs off a propane tank, easy peasy and plenty safe. Really all you need is some dry newspaper. Having a leaf blower on hand can help get/keep things going.

The last thing I would ever do is reach for a can of gasoline. If your pile doesn't want to burn itself, then maybe you just need to wait for it to dry out, or you're doing it wrong.

Tragic story, Richard.

 

[JRH02]

Knew a guy who had a reputation for taking advantage of people for his benefit. He had cleared a tree line back and then dug a substantial pit with a large Cat wheel loader. He piled the trees and slash into the pit (wouldn't let anyone cut on the slash for firewood either). Lit a HUGE fire and in a macho way was using his loader to bunch the pile as it burnt. You guessed it. He stuck the unit and couldn't get it backed away.

That story blessed a lot of hearts.

 

[goeduck]

When feeding a fire with my grapple I drop the load at the edge of the pile, back up and then bunch the pile with the grapple lid closed. If I ever stall, the unburned material between me and the fire would buy me time restart the tractor, hose the fire down, etc. We are required to have a hose nearby and with our 10' x 10' pile limit the burn can be doused fairly effectively.

 

[ning]

re using gasoline - Gasoline sucks for lighting any wood but what wants to be lit with a match. It burns off so quickly that it rarely catches anything on fire along with it; may as well use alcohol half of the time.

Diesel is definitely better this way (and much safer), though I've often had trouble getting diesel to light in the first place (you should've seen my wife the first time she saw me dousing a pile with diesel and then lighting it with a lighter close-up instead of making a trail fuse like with gas - she expected me to get blown up but the damn stuff wouldn't light until it had sat for a bit!). I don't bother with accelerants any more; now that I have the tractor I just have a few very dry piles and if I need to burns stuff I grab a pile and my propane torch - 30 seconds to a blazing pile.

 

[two_bit_score]

I knew of a guy once who tried to start a fire in his fireplace with gasoline and burned his house down and he died in the fire.

I have found dryer lint to be a great fire starter.

 

[Alan W.]

I agree gas is not only dangerous but it pales compared to diesel for starting fires.
But nuthin beats a tire

 

[KennyG]

I mix my used motor oil with wood shavings (bedding) and use it start fires in my wood stove, burn barrel, etc. Very effective and safe.

 

[Torvy]

Use oil toilet paper rolls stuffed with kindling, lint and your used oil/sawdust mixture. Nice little starter sticks.

 

[tallyho8]

I always use cardboard to start my burn piles. I get plenty of boxes from Amazon plus empty pizza boxes, soft drink and beer cartons, cereal boxes, etc., that I have to get rid of and they don't have ashes that fly away like newspaper does. They light fast and put out large amounts of heat that gets the pile burning without using expensive petroleum products and are much safer.

 

[goeduck]

I use a propane tank and weed burner torch to light up plies and normally it only takes a few minutes. After a recent heavy rain and subsequent snow I decided to burn a wet pile. The tank was an ice ball by the time the pile burned on its own. But gogdonit, I got it going.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Nothing better...View attachment 771819

that a good one

 

[Xfaxman]

Here is one of mine from a long time ago:

 

[JPRambo]

My wife makes some fire starters from cup cake papers, dryer lint, sawdust and old crayons.

 

[cpy911]

Cleaning up the property from poor practice logging done 15 years ago. They left massive piles that were supposed to rot, but should have been smaller and more spread out. I’ve had to torch some of them just to access areas. What a mess!

 

[NoTrespassing]

Going to light this next Saturday for our annual Winter Solstice party. It's a little late due to scheduling conflict. There are about 100 pallets, 1, 24" diameter x 40' tall cottonwood, and a couple 16" diameter trees in the pile.

 

[deezler]

^ yikes! Gonna be quite the torch. That looks like it will fall over once halfway built, for sure. Hope you have a roofing magnet sweeper on standby.

 

[NoTrespassing]

^ yikes! Gonna be quite the torch. That looks like it will fall over once halfway built, for sure. Hope you have a roofing magnet sweeper on standby.

This is our 4th or 5th year doing this. Each year they get a little bigger. So far they have all fallen towards the center. The nails just sink into the ground. The water table is pretty high in that area.