In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Fire scare next door...

Discussion in 'Everything Else (off topic)' started by Stinny, Oct 16, 2020.

  1. Stinny

    Stinny

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    Leaves are quite dry on the ground now. I could smell leaves burning yesterday. Thought it was waaay too windy to be burning anywhere in our neighborhood at 2 PM. Stepped out on our back deck and realized it was coming from next door! Lots of smoke being blown right at us, with winds around 10-15 mph. The perfect storm. I went out by my 2 wood racks and could see it was coming from the neighbor's rear lawn area... about 2oo feet from where I was standing. Have dealt with outdoor fires enough to know things can go sideways fast with wind like this, and plenty of fuel on the ground. Didn't see anyone out by the fire. Drove by their driveway and a tree line, enough to see a very excited guy running around a burn area, dumping 6, one gal jugs of water, on the fire. He didn't look too happy sooooo... :picard::headbang:... o_O

    A wake up call to me... I've always been super careful about fire pit fires here, having a hose ready... but hadn't really thought too much about my neighbor's. Very glad he was able to deal with it, and just hope he remembers what he learned... Dammmmm... :heidi:... thankful for a happy ending.

    200 feet to the right (old pic)... plenty of leaves and 12 acres of dry woods...

    upload_2020-10-16_10-23-22.png
     
  2. MikeInMa

    MikeInMa

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    I have 2 outside faucets. Each with 150ft, of half-inch hose. If I ever need to head off a brushuge fire in the surrounding woods, it wouldn't take long for me to attack it with 300ft of hose.

    Thanks for sharing, and good for you it became a non-issue.

    Nice racks, btw.
     
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  3. Backwoods Savage

    Backwoods Savage Moderator

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    Glad you lucked out Stinny. Its hard to believe how ignorant some folks can be.
     
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  4. TurboDiesel

    TurboDiesel

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    :eek:
    Scary stuff.
    Glad it all worked out!

    :handshake:
     
  5. Flamestead

    Flamestead

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  6. billb3

    billb3

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    <one gallon jugs of water> SMH

    This is why we have to get fire permits from the fire department now.
    They often come out before your permit begins for an inspection. For common sense things like a hose that works connected to a faucet that water actually comes out of.
     
  7. Horkn

    Horkn

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    Some people....:picard:

    Today, 15 mph winds and the neighbor is burning leaves. That's one reason I brought down a couple of extra fire extinguishers from the cottage. I keep one in the garage, two in the basement, one in the kitchen cabinet, and now 3 in the garden shed.

    My dad used to sell fire extinguishers as part of his job. So I've got more than most people do.
     
  8. farmer steve

    farmer steve

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    We had about 5 acres of cornfield burn last week a mile up the road. The corn had been picked so no major loss. A guy had a fire in his burn barrel the day before and when the winds picked up the next day it blew some smoldering embers into the cornfield. A person was driving through the thick smoke and couldn't see and ran off the road into a utility pole to make matters worse for the fire crews.
     
  9. ReelFaster

    ReelFaster

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    Just can never be to careful when it comes to fire. Inside or outside, must be respected and properly handled at all times, zero exceptions.
     
  10. Chvymn99

    Chvymn99 Moderator

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    Scary stuff right there...dry combustible material and wind is a bad combination...

    Several years ago with my old neighbor... It was a Saturday or Sunday afternoon I was outside working on something. I knew my neighbor was burning his firepit. When I looked over my fence and saw that it caught the grass on fire and it was spreading.... I grabbed my metal rake and ran around the fence.... knocked on his backdoor and let him know.... We caught it just as it was at my wood fence... Lucky that I was outside or it could have been a lot worse...Especially since my fire wood was just on the other side of the said fence...
     
  11. Stinny

    Stinny

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    I guess my most memorable "lesson" with fires getting out of control was... watching the local fire dept do a "controlled" burn in a big field across from our place, years ago. All was fine for a while. I'm yakin' with one of the guys up by the pumper truck. The fire has burned across the field and is finally getting to the edge of the field, next to the road, toward our house (maybe 200' away, across the road, down wind, with low pines and dead wood between us) Fires in the field were burning hot, now with a slight breeze. One of the guys called for water from the truck and... ugh... no water. The pump, or the engine, or sumthin... wasn't hapnin. I stood there frozen, watching the fire get to the edge of the field and set the 20' wide strip of trees on fire, next to our gravel road. I couldn't believe what I was watching. Guys were screaming at the pump guy for water. Finally, one of the those guys sprinted up to the truck and got the pump going... and they finally got the fire out, after it burned about 150' of the strip of trees... but, before it jumped the road... o_O:picard:

    I was in my mid twenties then. I'm 66 now. That was playing in my pea brain watching this guy yesterday... :headbang:
     
  12. Horkn

    Horkn

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    I bet it was. You don't forget stuff like that.


    That reminds me of when my parents had a big pile of brush in the field. So Dad called the local FD to let them practice and do a "controlled burn". Well, let's just say that the fire chief thought using gasoline to start the fire was a bad idea and he got his face burned pretty badly. So we had a fire truck AND an ambulance at the house. o_O
     
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  13. brenndatomu

    brenndatomu

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    My co worker tells of a time he was burning brush one evening...fire was down to coals so he went in. Didn't check it before going to work the next morning but when he went back there after work there was lots of smoke...come around the corner to find a huge pile of firewood and a standing cherry tree pretty much burnt up and gone... It was about 50' from the brushpile...oops.
     
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  14. brenndatomu

    brenndatomu

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    I think I've told this story here before, but when I was a little guy I was riding on the tractor with my dad while mowing wheat straw down...super dry out...mower hits a rock, makes spark, fire starts, dad hits it with the fire extinguisher off the tractor to no avail...go beelining to the house to call FD...then I had to stay in the house when FD came...I was so mad...anyways, I went towards the road and got hot enough to discolor the aluminum siding on the house across the road! That, and the melted phone line wires were about the only real damage.
     
  15. Canadian border VT

    Canadian border VT

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    Glad it worked out Stinny .. Some people should not be allowed to play with fire!!
     
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  16. Eckie

    Eckie

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    That's why we prefer the term prescribed fire now...
     
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  17. Screwloose

    Screwloose

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    In my younger days I was on the fire department. On windy fall days an older rather salty fellow would have me in the back of the brush truck manning the hose. He'd drive around following the smoke and would pull up to the fires and I'd put em out without saying a word. Sometimes driving through manicured yards ect. People would start yelling and and He'd pick up the mike and call the sheriff offering to levy a fine, the sheriff in fact would be anyone hanging around the fire house at the time and would usually wind up quite comical.
     
  18. Horkn

    Horkn

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    The same reason why doctors and lawyers are "practicing". :emb:
     
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  19. Erik B

    Erik B

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    Still trying to get it right
     
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  20. Eckie

    Eckie

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    There can be a fine line that changes the word "controlled" to uncontrolled in the blink of an eye. And way too many people, who have no idea what they are doing, do stupid stuff with fire.
     
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