Little fire at my in-laws

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I got a call from my father in law Friday evening. Come quick I got a fire! Turns out the neighbor had started a brush pile and it got out.

The fire department was already there when I got there. There was a ribbon line about 1/4 mile most of it in the woods. I got the disc on his Allis 170 and immediately caught it on fire while discing the line that was in the field... Luckily i was able to drive it to a fire truck and they got it put out with no damage.

Once the field was out i started helping in the woods. One of the fire departments had a pickup truck with about a 500 gal tank and at least 200' of hose. They traded the hose through the trees and sprayed as far as they could. When they walked out to reset the hose i raked the line back until they came back with more water.

The forestry service came with a couple dozers and made a quick fire break through the woods. It was impressive. The truck they hauled it with was also impressive.

Still some smoldering but the danger is over now.

 

[K5lwq]

Glad y’all were able to get it contained. Is the first picture a back burn intentionally set or is it from the fire? It looks to be burning into the wind.

 

[RjCorazza]

Dang... Glad they got it out quick. You must live in a high fire danger area for the forestry service to come out.
I had a forestry guy show up on a small woods fire that was getting out of control and into the canopy... He was awesome, and a one man wrecking crew with a chainsaw. I assigned one of our guys to him, and asked that he do whatever was necessary.

 

[fatjay]

Glad you got it sorted before to much damage. It's getting to be that time of year where leaves and dead grass can quickly go up.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Glad y’all were able to get it contained. Is the first picture a back burn intentionally set or is it from the fire? It looks to be burning into the wind.

That was the actual fire. It was lucky the wind was working against it.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

It has been dry, I could see how that could happen. Glad you got it contained. I have a couple fires to burn but I won't even think about it until we get a rain or 2.

 

[dodge man]

In Western Illinois it’s been dry and yesterday was very windy and they had warnings out about the fire danger. It easy for it to get out of hand.

 

[ponytug]

Wow! I'm glad it turned out ok, and it sounds like you were all on top of it.

Nice photos. For some reason, I haven't ever stopped to take photos when we have had small fires around here, as usually it is just me working until the Calvary arrives. I tend not to have a cellphone on me when I'm out as there is no reception here.

All the best,

Peter

 

[dusty3030]

Positive side that fire in the woods will be good for the wildlife.
I'm still kicking myself a little for not buying one of those trucks at an auction one time. It was a Mississippi forestry commission truck pre emissions and low miles / hours. I flinched because it didn't have air conditioning and quit bidding, regardless it went for a great price.

 

[2manyrocks]

It's been dry in middle TN for maybe 4-6 weeks. Had one hard rain the other night, and the creek bed is still dry. If it's as dry there as here, I can't imagine starting any brush pile fires right now.

 

[nyone]

By the looks of the low ground fire it could have been put out with a leaf blower. It's been so wet here there hadn't been a fire risk for almost a year.

 

[sea2summit]

Glad to hear it got sorted so quickly for you!

The forest service has three of those trucks parked under an overhang in our small town, I’ve always wanted to ride when they drive that thing. It’s gotta lean hard on corners.

 

[jaxs]

Firefighter grandson said several roadside fires popped up and they tracked them to a trailer parked at guy's house that pulled it there with blown out tire.

 

[groundcover]

Backpack leaf blower is very effective too. Blow the fire back to black. I have contained a fast moving grass fire before the fire trucks arrived. A lot of brush now carry them now.

 

[MoKelly]

This is very scary to me. I had a similar scare late last year. I started a burn pile and the wind came up. It was probably too dry to burn.

I was with my son and the fire got away from us —- luckily ( by the grace of God) —- we got it out before it got to the recently harvested corn stalks! Barely. We had blowers and rakes and a weed whacker.

No pictures of the actual fire but we have one of the aftermath. My son has a sense of humor on the photo.

I am now gun shy. Haven’t started a burn pile since.

 

[4570Man]

Glad to hear it got sorted so quickly for you!

The forest service has three of those trucks parked under an overhang in our small town, I’ve always wanted to ride when they drive that thing. It’s gotta lean hard on corners.

A dozers center of gravity is pretty low so I doubt it’s as top heavy as it looks. A 550 dozer is about 20k pounds which is a pretty light load for a tandem truck. I’ve never driven or even been around one of those but I doubt they would drive bad at least compared to any other tandem truck. It’s obviously not a sports car.

 

[Thomas]

Team work with good ending.

 

[Thomas]

This is very scary to me. I had a similar scare late last year. I started a burn pile and the wind came up. It was probably too dry to burn.

I was with my son and the fire got away from us —- luckily ( by the grace of God) —- we got it out before it got to the recently harvested corn stalks! Barely. We had blowers and rakes and a weed whacker.

No pictures of the actual fire but we have one of the aftermath. My son has a sense of humor on the photo.

View attachment 828207

I am now gun shy. Haven’t started a burn pile since.

We have strict rules here for burning pile...noting over 6" dia. must be continuing heavy rain while pile burning or least 2" snow on the ground,could also hire fire department.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

By the looks of the low ground fire it could have been put out with a leaf blower. It's been so wet here there hadn't been a fire risk for almost a year.

Backpack blowers showed up after the fire was mostly out. They were from a volunteer FD and the operators were apparently brand new. They just started blowing any direction. I had to go behind them and put the new fires out they started. But yes it was not hard to put out. The leaves were still damp and grass still green and the wind was on our side. It was slow moving. Still, it was pretty scary when I first got there. I didn't know how fast it was moving and I didn't want it getting to their house.