Anyone ever have a pile of chips catch fire? I know hay can burn under the right conditions from spontaneous combustion. Today I decided I needed to empty my dump trailer which had the chips of about 8 assorted trees in it (mostly oak, a bit of cedar, some gum, cherry and poison ivy) When I lifted the trailer, the load didn't slide out as it had rained on it some too. Pulled it out with a hook fork and that stuff was smoking hot. (literally smoking) I'm thinking if I didn't get to it, may have roasted my dump trailer. The load was large as I had it piled 6' deep and the trailer is 12' long x 6.5' wide. I put it in a place it doesn't matter how hot it gets.
I have had piles of shredded tree, leaves ,grass clippings and what not all do the same thing. Not unusual at all if a mixed assortment of brown and green. And yes it is possible for it to get hot enough to flame, never had it happen to me. One of the recycling centers had it happen a few years back. Major fire + the fire got into used tires which made it worse.
Mulch piles get stupid hot. Even the piles that are mostly composted are too hot to touch in the center. Are you sure you saw smoke and not steam?
Spontaneous combustion CAN happen, albeit rarely......I'm betting you were seeing steam from that chip pile.
I wouldn't put any of my money on it. I've seen mulch piles get hot before and when I was a kid (um, that would be about 40 years ago...) we had a large mulch pile that started burning in the middle. Whether it was steam or smoke, it was hot enough for both. I rarely have a load of chips as large as this and I don't usually leave them in the trailer for a few days in our 90+ degree heat. I'm doing a job that is nearby so loaded up fuller than normal as it was only a mile drive. Had problems with my truck halfway (yeah, couldn't even go one mile without a breakdown, lol) and by the time I got it home I just parked it and went on to other things. On a brighter note, I discovered the hydraulic leak on my tractor loader was a loose fitting and not a blown seal like I thought.
Fermentation. If the conditions are right combustion will occur. Exactly like when hay catches fire. Good that its off the trailer.
You can make a whole hog, bones and all, go away in a pile of sawdust that's cookin' in pretty short time.
My sawdust is scattered about where I do my cutting. No more than 6 inches thick. I have never seen that heat effect, but mines not in a compost setting. I'm planning on gathering up the noodles and such and will use them as tinder since they'll be very dry by fall.
I pushed back the manure piles at the farm the other day. Probably have a few hundred yards of it. They were smoking like crazy as I scooped into it with the bobcat and had burned areas. Some spots had sawdust mixed in (horse farm) and it was all burned up. Several years ago my neighbor had a small trailer burn to the ground. She had it parked by the curb and was putting yard junk like grass and dead plants in there. I was leaving for work one morning and it was slowly burning away. Fire Department said it was likely the mix of stuff getting so hot to catch fire. Was in Idaho, so almost no humidity and 100* days was quite normal. I'm sure that wouldn't help.
Well, I'm glad I emptied the trailer out so I have a relatively uninteresting story about it. lol. We had neighbors that burned down their barn twice in five years due to moist hay being stacked into it. Think they would've learned the first go round.
