Burn Pile advice

[woodlandfarms]

So, I messed up. I was able to tarp 2 out of 5 of my burn piles.

It has rained for a while, my two covered piles, gone in 30 seconds today.

My 3 wet ones... no bueno.. smoking hulks. I used Diesel, propane torch, they are just too wet.

So, do you think I could tarp the other piles, maybe leave a high spot (high branch) area open to allow moisture to escape, and come back in a month or two and have a decent burn or will I just have a moldy pile of sticks to contend with.

Carl

 

[Mousefield]

I would think they will dry out a bit by tarping and leaving a bit of ventilation. If you get a few dry/sunny days that would help as well.

 

[aczlan]

Did you use something dry to help start things? You would be surprised at what will light when you put a 8" flake of (dry) hay under it and pour on a pint of used motor oil or diesel fuel.

Aaron Z

 

[logan97]

So, I messed up. I was able to tarp 2 out of 5 of my burn piles.

It has rained for a while, my two covered piles, gone in 30 seconds today.

My 3 wet ones... no bueno.. smoking hulks. I used Diesel, propane torch, they are just too wet.

So, do you think I could tarp the other piles, maybe leave a high spot (high branch) area open to allow moisture to escape, and come back in a month or two and have a decent burn or will I just have a moldy pile of sticks to contend with.

Carl

my neighbor makes a box before he makes the pile, like a tipi door. Once the pile is made he has maybe a 2 by 2 or 3 by 3 opening where he starts a dry fire seems to work for him.

 

[mkane09]

If you get your starter fire hot enough, the wet stuff will dry and burn as it goes. Diesel, waste motor oil, some dry pieces to get it all rolling.

mkane09

 

[nap61]

I have had luck even with wet piles by putting a roll of toilet paper near the bottom of the pile and soaking it with deisel. Then pour some more fuel around that area. As said above, once it gets burning, the fire will dry the wood around it as it goes. I got the t/p idea here on TBN.

Norm

 

[LD1]

If you get your starter fire hot enough, the wet stuff will dry and burn as it goes. Diesel, waste motor oil, some dry pieces to get it all rolling.

mkane09

I agree. We sially use a bit of dry straw and once that is going, start dumping used motor oil on til the fire is self-sustaining.

But if you do tarp, I think it will be just fine. It is the sae as tarping firewood left outside. A few sunny days and it will get real hot under there and dry it out. But even if you dont tarp it, a few sunny days and you should be fine anyway.

 

[TWD]

dry wood, pine needles, leaves, etc, shoved under the bottom. Put some diesel on them, then put some gas on it. Throw or use long stick to light... gas will poof, burn for a couple minutes hopefully drying out a lot, and diesel and dry piles will burn longer. One of my piles last year required numerous cups of gas tossed on before it was dry enough to continue burning :laughing:

 

[steve08]

Leaf Blower helps too.

 

[Thomas]

Rags curl up into ball soak w/diesel fuel also diesel brush pile,but if pile that wet maybe what for week of drying time..less of mess.

 

[MossRoad]

Gas on a fire is, for lack of a better term, not a good idea. Being told that, knowing that, and doing it anyway is, for lack of a better term, not a good idea. Do not use gas to light a fire.

Firemen are trained professionals. MOST TBN members are not trained fire professionals.

Do not use gas and do not get insulted when you suggest it and people, for lack of a better term, start name calling.

 

[aczlan]

A diesel and gas mixture is how the fire stations run their burns they all must be "dumb" and have no idea what they are doing.

There is a slight difference between using a 3-1 or 2-1 Diesel-Gas mix and using straight gasoline. Something about explosions vs a nice burn.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

Back around 1960 my father lit a brush pile with gasoline. Apparently the fumes rolled down the hill away from the fire and when he lit it the entire yard caught on fire. My mom had to run all the way to the end of the block to pull the fire alarm at the box on the pole. The fire department arrived just in time to save the house. My mother complained that it took too long to run all the way to the end of the block to pull the alarm. The next day the fire chief came out and had a pull box installed on a pole at the end of our driveway and made a comment for all the neighbors to hear that this alarm pullbox was for dumb people that use gas to light fires. Mom was mortified.

Around 1979 I raked a bunch of wet leaves into our driveway for my parents. They would not light. So I poured about 1 cup of gas on the leaf pile, went back to the house and got a match. When I tossed the match at the wet pile of leaves, apparently the fumes had spread throughout the pile but not escaped, there was a rather loud FOOMP! noise and all I could see was an X-Ray like vision of the leaf pile and sticks, similar to the cartoon skeletons you see when a character gets electrocuted. Then there was smoke and flame everywhere, burning blobs of wet leaves falling from the sky and I lost my eyebrows. The smell of burning hair is most memorable. That was dumb.

Back when I was in Boy Scouts at camp, the large campfire at the end of the week would not light. With 80 to 100 boys sitting around the fire, a leader walked up to the fire with a can of gas and splashed it at the smoldering fire. All I remember was the fire going WOOF!, the leader running away with the can splashing fuel and the fire chasing him. He tossed it away, which happened to be in the woods, the fire chased up to the can and it went BOOM! and the woods were then of fire. They put it out, but that was dumb of the leader.

Did I mention that you should not use gas to start a fire? :thumbsup:

 

[brin]

A salesman came to my office one day and had open sores all over his arms and neck...and I knew him well enough to feel comfortable asking him what happened...He looked down and sheepishly said...We moved into a new house with a fireplace and we had never had a fireplace so I tried to get the logs lit but they would not light so I poured some gasoline on the logs and lit a match and that is how I got burned...it blew the logs out of the fireplace and did a lot of damage....I did not say anything to him...Guys..remember with gas it is the fumes that will get you ..they explode when you stike your match...

 

[MossRoad]

So, I messed up. I was able to tarp 2 out of 5 of my burn piles.

It has rained for a while, my two covered piles, gone in 30 seconds today.

My 3 wet ones... no bueno.. smoking hulks. I used Diesel, propane torch, they are just too wet.

So, do you think I could tarp the other piles, maybe leave a high spot (high branch) area open to allow moisture to escape, and come back in a month or two and have a decent burn or will I just have a moldy pile of sticks to contend with.

Carl

Cover the top of your pile but leave the sides open. It will dry out in just a few days of sunlight and breezes. If you tarp it completely, it may end up evaporating moisture out of the ground into your pile. That's what happened with my wood pile that we discussed in the Power Trac forum. With the top covered and the sides opened it dried again quickly. :thumbsup:

 

[MikePA]

Did I mention that you should not use gas to start a fire? :thumbsup:

Youngest daughter's current boyfriend wanted to burn a stump out. Yep, you guessed it, he used gasoline. He ran out of luck when he tried to re-light what he thought was a stump that 'went out'.

Third degree burns on left arm, neck and part of chest. Second degree on face. First trip was to local hospital to stabilize him. Second trip was to a regional burn center, by helicopter, for skin grafts and further treatment.

After several weeks at the burn center he came home. He's looking pretty good after about 8 months. Then we found out he was using gasoline to light his grill. Hello? They make charcoal lighter fluid for this purpose.

Gasoline should never be used to light a fire.

 

[TWD]

I`m sorry to hear about everyone's burn stories and what I say next is in no way to disrespect them.
--------------------------------------------



We should probably stop driving cars too they are deadly! :mur: And our tractors! Look how many people have been dieing or getting run over with them lately, YIKES!

Not one place did I say it should be taken lightly when using any flammable liquid around an ignition source. We are talking about burn piles which often consist of intense fires and heat! I would hope that the majority of people having a burn in their yard understand the reactions gasoline has when ignited but maybe I`m mistaken. With that said.. we are all adults here so I think each of us can share their methods, understand their own abilities, and agree to disagree on certain things. I will agree that ANYTHING that is flammable and dangerous should be used with EXTREME caution. Use anything flammable to ignite brush at your own risk.





To continue the discussion... how many people here have burned Christmas trees or cedar limbs/trees? Talk about an intense inferno! Ignite nearly as fast as gasoline (no explosion possibility really) and they continue to burn longer than gasoline.

People doing burn piles should be aware of white smoke explosions (in enclosed areas) or large flames in the open.

I personally experienced it once when we had a decent burn going and some green limbs were thrown on and it started smoking for a couple minutes pretty good... we are talking intense white smoke going straight up! Next we tossed on some cedar limbs (to get it going more), maybe 2 or 3 hand fulls when they ignited they burst into flames so fast and so hot it actually ignited a large majority of the white smoke causing a HUGE flame to go 60'+ into the air. It was a very awesome site, surprising, and dangerous if not done in a big open area that's for sure.