And this is why we are careful with fire…

[cbw]

Fire is scary for sure. We keep skid loader, 70 gal sprayer, backpack sprayer and tractor with disk handy when we burn. We’ve found found a good Stihl backpack blower with lots of eyes/helping hands most effective for keeping a fire from getting out of control.


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[jsasker007]

A few years ago I had peat burning underground just outside of my backyard. I never did any burning at all but I think maybe a spark from my excavator maybe caused it to catch fire. I was in that area doing some digging a few days before I saw any smoke and the excavator was doing a regen to burn the exhaust clean. During a regen the exhaust stack gets hotter than hell and runs like that for about 45 minutes before it's burned clean in the exhaust system. It's the only thing I could think of that may have started that peat on fire. It burned real slow and was smoking off and on for a few weeks but never really spread anywhere luckily.

 

[Catscratch]

Lots of burning going on still!
Viewe from the living room last night.

 

[hillrunner]

I burned about 15 acres this morning. There was a couple minutes of panic but overall went without incident.

 

[b116757]

I’ve burned a lot of pastures and brush piles over the years and had to call the fire department a time or two when things got out of hand. Last time the pasture fire jumped into cedar tops at my north line heading across the line towards the neighbors so I called to protect the cedars that semi act as a privacy screan between us more than anything hated to lose them.

 

[omicron1792]

Glad it all ended well Derek.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Clover plot on the left and burned area on the right..it is recovering very fast

 

[buckdeer1]

Tmax,we sent 1 truck up to the lake area up there and they were there for 12 hrs. 4Wandering,I take it you are in a state that doesn't pay property taxes to the FD?Heck in Kansas the state can't even get dozers most likely.But I would say on the average 80 acres with a house you might pay 20.00 a year for fire dept.I know a couple of states you have subscription services also.

 

[356]

Years ago I had a brush pile burn get away from me. It was in a spot that it should never have made the jump but it did. Got into neighbors corn stubble. Corn stubble burns so hot I could hardly believe it. It is an understatement when I tell you it scared the hell out of me.

Training and a burn plan is essential. My friend and colleague did a 7 acre burn last winter that went great. Three days later a windstorm set a snag on fire, which caused an ember to fly into the woods, resulting in a 70 acre fire and the loss of a Redneck blind. Four days later, the same thing happened. Both times the volunteer fire department had to respond. What went wrong?
1) They did not have a burn plan. While they had used burns for decades, it was a seat of the pants practice.
2) They did not have enough volunteers.
3) They did not have a follow-through plan.
4) They focused only on burn day weather, not what was coming.

This year they have an approved burn plan, formal training through the Department of Conservaton and better firebreaks. Having enough helpers and the right equipment (which is not expensive) is essential for a safe and successful burn.

 

[356]

So it finally happened after a few small burns..had one get away fro me yesterday..took my weed torch up to the 2 food plots above my house and planned on just hitting the higher dead grass/weeds that I had left standing as a kind of break in between the 2 plots and at the top near the fence row..so I got them rolling in dead calm conditions and everything was going great..but then I got distracted by doing some seeding in the plot farthest away from the active fire (they are both only 1/2 acre, so not even out of eyesight). Wouldn’t you know it, the wind picked up to probably 15-20mph blowing right toward my “cover” field that I have just let go for the past 3 years and is full of small brush and old hay..that field caught like a tinder box and started heading towards my neighbor’s property. Once I saw I couldn’t stop it, I called in the pros (2 local fire depts). As I had expected, the fire stopped at the edge of my neighbor’s mowed yard (but there is a dry woods to the south and another strip similar to my now non-cover field close by about where that wind/fire were heading.) Very grateful for the fire dept’s quick response as they had the fire out inside a half hour and it only ended up burning about an acre. Also glad my neighbors are very laid back and weren’t really worried at all. All the fire guys were really nice and not judgemental…so for the future I will always have at minimum my 25 gallon sprayer with boom and at least 1 other person as well as checking the weather report instead of just thinking “oh hey it’s calm seems like a good day to burn” and will definitely not try to multitask…great way to start off my birthday weekend….View attachment 63464View attachment 63465

Thanks for sharing. It is amazing what you can control with a back-pack or other small sprayer. May I link this thread to the Burn forum?

 

[Westwind]

My screw up was in the early 2000’s and I remember it like it was yesterday! It was a pile of scraps our builder piled up and I piled up brush on. Lit ‘er up early in the morning and was bouncing around on the tractors doing this and that, kinda watching it, thinking it was going nowhere. Contained on the east side by a wet ditch and mowed on the west side. Went up to the house, came back awhile later and it was racing west across my pasture. The damn wind was all of a sudden out of the east! WTH!!!

I was so damn embarrassed.

 

[Derek Reese 29]

my embarrassment remains as well, as my one buddy bought me a forest rangers hat and still refers to me as "Smoky"
getting ready to try to burn little sections of the same field, but this time there are paths and breaks already in place...will still have the water and more people around...

 

[Feelslikefar.]

I tried to burn a little patch once in the middle of the yard, maybe a 25ft circle in the middle of the yard. I quickly realized I wasn't going to me able to control it by myself and put it out. (only burned a little more than a square yard) After that I never gave it another thought.

But since I'm only dealing with micro plots and leaf litter, I keep wondering about burn barrels/rings. "What if I just keep moving it, how many weeks would it take me to burn the whole plot, 3 feet at a time?" lol

 

[hillrunner]

I've got about 40 acres I need to burn this spring. I have a fair amount of help lined up so I'm hoping this goes smooth but I still get nervous when I think about it. I already mowed fire breaks around the crp field part of this but I'm debating taking a disk to it as well, at least on the side that borders a neighbor.

 

[Mortenson]

I'd disc it for sure. Can't be too cautious.

 

[jsasker007]

I've got about 40 acres I need to burn this spring. I have a fair amount of help lined up so I'm hoping this goes smooth but I still get nervous when I think about it. I already mowed fire breaks around the crp field part of this but I'm debating taking a disk to it as well, at least on the side that borders a neighbor.

Would you be able to start on the neighbors side? Don't know how much of a difference it would make. Just a thought.

 

[bigboreblr]

A little set of discs can go a long way. You can always double back burn a wide stop too.

Even little camp fires, I got plenty more water than I need around. Fill everything you have.

Almost had a forest fire at camp once. Some young einsteins doing fireworks.....

GLad you're ok and it didn't get too out of hand. Neighbors last year had a brush fire, then 4 days later another neighbor had a brush fire right next door to the last brainiac. Campfire getting out of hand.

Found out it's legal in NY. Still going to just burn with roundup......

 

[hillrunner]

Would you be able to start on the neighbors side? Don't know how much of a difference it would make. Just a thought.

That's what I'm hoping to do. I need the right conditions and low wind