5.35 AM the door bell rings and someones knocking(banging) on the door. A police officer was there and said my wood pile was on fire!! Huh?? "Its not my wood pile its my neighbors", I said. And pointed at the house. He said, Well its about to reach the wood pile and because we were the closest house. He wanted us aware and ready JIC. It seems the leaves caught fire in the vacant lot and traveled to his wood pile. Everyone and their brother dumps stuff in the lot. Looks like someone dumped wood stove ashes and thats what caused the fire! And the fire spread all the way down to the road. So, It had been going for a bit before someone saw the flames. Anyway Thank You W.F.D. for responding quickly and knocking the fire down in less than an hour.
It happens up here too, people have actually put the ashes in a plastic bag an set them on the porch, poof!
I think it was last year that a guy put the ashes next to the garage and not far from his wood stack, they were able to save the wood stack. His excuse was he "thought" the ashes were cold, there you go thinking again.
There was a story in the new a few years ago, the the grandfather left the ashes on the porch and it burned the house down killing the family.
The woods are really dry! It flared up again and the had to come back. Standing guard if it flares again!!
Stupid can sometimes be self fixing. More water Mr. Fireman a lot more. Those "cold" ashes are very good at hiding their hot.
The "fire dept coming back" reminded me of the Guilford Maine fire around 1970. A bakery had a fire, fire dept came and put it out. I remember walking down by many times as a curious kid and seeing it still smoking perty good in the back, long after the fire dept had gone. It wasn't very long after... fire dept was back trying to save the remaining few buildings on that block. They didn't. It's a park now.
I'm glad the fire wasn't worse. Uncontrolled burns are so scary. Every year there are death and property losses that were so preventable. Even when you do everything right, someone else can set you up for a disaster.
Glad it didn't get any worse than it already was. As for the woodpile? Tell your neighbor to join FHC. He has a nice stack! lol
Sounds like the Xmas eve one in CT. The kids were worried how Santa would get down the chimney, hence the cleaning. Sad a story as could be.
Good safety tip to bring up. I did that last week Emptied the stove, took the ashes to the garden & dumped Second bucket to the garden I had a fire going in some leaves. Couldn't have got away, but would've burn down several Raspberry cane. Has been dry here for quite a while. Got them put out, but a real good safety reminder !
They dowsed it good this time and raked all the hot spots and dowsed them again. The even racked a fire brake around the wood piles and dowsed them. Good thing these are 2 seasons away from the stove. Thats only half of it! Has 1 other and a big round pile. Older gent that does do the net deal. He'd rather spend his time watching sports on the telly. I remember that one too. Very sad story!!
I like snow piles, frozen ground, and even then I keep it away from anything that might go poof if lit up. It is in a closed metal can for some time before I dump it.
