Fire story

Two years ago we were in the middle of bad drought and we were scrounging everybit we could to get enough hay to survive the winter. My buddy was mowing a field of timothy, brome grass mix when he hit a rock, the haybine rattled for a couple seconds so he looked back just in time to see the top of a rock guard fly off the haybine, it went over the top and landed in the fresh mowed windrow. Well it was hot enough that the windrow burst into flames immediately. You should have seen him hopping around trying to stamp out the flames, he stopped the fire and nothing was lost but man that was close. It sure was funny to watch from 1/4 mile away though. Any other stories out there? I know some people are really suffering from the fires in Ok. etc. And I'm not trying to make light of the danger of fire, but there must be some more stories out there.

Well interestingly enough, I had my own fire story this weekend. I was burning some brush at my hunting cabin Thursday night. I decided to head home and return the next moring to finish up my work. You know where this is heading. We have had over 7" of rain here in the last week and have standing water in the yard. So, I hosed down the fire and left. When I returned at 10:00 am, I was met by the fire department. I guess an ash had jumped and burned about three acres of woods between my cabin and the next. Luckily, no property was damaged. The foresty service was not real mad about it. They let it burn itself all the way to the road. Some of the firefighters said it was actually good, as there was too much fuel that had built up. This is a pine forest, so fire actually does some good for it. I felt like a total jack@#s. I also received a $120 ticket for my carelessness. Lesson learned.

here's a good one use to live next to 2 older ladies,they had doberman's for protection,anyway they were burning some leaves and grass got out of hand I went down to help put it out they said they called the fire dept but I stayed and helped anyway when the trucks got there the fireman all jumped out except 1 who I knew a real big guy but a big pr$#%#ck too went and asked him why the he%$%$ll he wasn't helping said he was afraid of the dogs,yep what a guy to have on the fire dept,sure hope my house doesn't start on fire I have 2 dogs also.have a good one!!!

years back, i must have been around 15 or so, we had bad ground hog problems. they were tearing heck with the soybeans. i used to go out in the field with the .22 and lay down watching thru the scope, then pick em off. got 20 or so but there was one that was up on a knoll in the fenceline i just couldnt get. so i go up there with a can of gas and the shot gun, figure i"ll dump some gas down the hole, toss a match, and pop him when he comes out the other hole. it was hot and i wasnt wearing a shirt. dumped the gas in, the hole was at the edge of the fenceline in the deadfurrow. gave it 5 or ten minutes to soak in, grabbed the shot gun and threw the match. well, the vapor traveled down the dead furrow and when the match hit the vapor, it woofed a ways down and caught the fenceline on fire. holy crap!!! boy i didnt want to catch h*ll so i grabbed a big bundle of green weeds and beat the fire out. dad would have never known, except that bundle of green weeds was poison oak. covered both arms and my stomach.

Many years ago when we were cleaning out the shop, we burned a lot of old paper, etc, in a barrel. We let the fire burn itself out and left the barrel sitting outside. About two weeks later, James decided to dump the ashes in a wash close to the shop. The ashes were soggy and wet from being rained on and neither of us thought much about it.

James went on to do some work around the farm and I saddled my horse and went for a ride. When I came back, the ditch was on fire and the fire was just getting out into the woods.

I rode up to James and told him the fire was getting out. James said "What fire? I haven't started any fires." I told him the ditch was on fire and getting into the woods.

It hadn't gotten very far into the dry leaves and we were able to stop it, but there wasn't anything we could do about the brush and old wood we had piled in the ditch other than watch it burn and make sure it didn't get out again.

Even though the barrel had been sitting for at least two weeks and had been rained on, there were still some embers that got the fire started when they were exposed to air.

If I hadn't come back from my ride when I did, we could have been in real trouble.

Lesson learned - Never dump ashes until you have thoroughly soaked them.

Many years back, our Fire Dep't had a lot of trouble with "Saturday rubbish burners!" They are the folks who work all week in an office, and on Saturday they clean out the trash and garbage, pile it up at the edge of the woods, light it, and go inside to do something else!
One day, a nice warm day, with a medium breeze, some bone-head went out, filled the burn barrel with papers, lit it up, and away it went! Fire traveled a 1/4 mile thru the woods, burnt down an old barn and out-buildings, missed an old log cabin, and by the time we got the call, it took the Dodge Power Wagon all it had to keep up with it. The DPW is our field-fire truck. Eventually we had 3 fire companies tankers and men helping! Got it stopped before it burnt the occupied homes!
We now have anti-burning laws, and the Borough clamps down hard on violators.

Dad used to talk about peat fires burning all winter, leaving holes underground that might collapse when going across with a tractor. Last fall, after spending a couple summers clearing brush on 9 acres of peat, I had four piles to burn. Lit them up, relit one the next morning. Within the next two weeks we had two inches of rain, and at the end of that time, one pile was still smoldering, and the ground was white ash, over a foot deep. Got the backhoe and dug alongside, five feet deep got me through the peat and into water. Pushed the ash in, then rocks, and closed the hole. Next morning- no more smoke! Final cleanup of the peat gave me one more pile, but that will be pushed up onto the cornfield, buried, and burned.

This isn't exactly about the fire itself, but we were burning off a 160 acre field of some thick wheat stubble one time, when a big dark blue thunderstorm rolled up from the north...

The line of fire was a bright string all across the field and about 6 feet tall - and against the dark storm clouds, you could see a blizzard of 3 inch flying grasshoppers being pushed by the wind across that line of fire - it was like a long shallow waterfall as they got burned by the heat and fell in...

That's from back when I was a kid - but the memory stuck...


HH

a good 20-25 years ago, dad was chopping off a swamp behind a company for bedding, and he was borrowing the neighbors neew Badger chopper wagon so he could do multiple loads before unhooking and bringing the wagons home. The chopper had a bearing that would get hot, so dad just kept greasing it after every load. Well after dad had about a full load in the nieghbors wagon, the hot grease dripped on the windrowed canary grass and stsrted a fire right underneath the wagon whan dad stopped to pull the pin.

Said he flew back on the tractor and pulled the wagon onto the gravel drive and called the FD. Once tyhey showed up, he just drove back home, scorched chopper, wagon, and all.

The marsh was a complete loss.

Donovan from Wisconsin

After reading all these stories...

I burned 3 brush piles last night with no problems.
Thankfully.

I was round baling wheat straw in a hot dry year. A bale started smoking right in the baler. I kicked it out,left the baler running to keep tossing the flames out and got into a bean field. I got enough dirt thrown on it to put out the flames but I still had smoke.

The bale was in flames by that time. Fire was sperading across the field. Everytime it would get to another bale,it would burn the strings off,then the bale would burst open and throw flames all over. I headed for the road,got across to the house on the other side and had the woman call the fire department. I used her hose to finish putting out the smoldering chaff in the baler. I don't remember anymore how many bales burned up or how many acres of straw,but there was sure a lot of pressure released when those strings burned away.

We had an old haywagon given to us, it had been a horse pulled wagon originally and the original wheels were old wooden wagon wheels. Somebody had cut them down and mounted old car rims so that it had rubber tires, but the original iron shod wooden hubs.
Even with greasing the hubs good, we knew that it wasn't good for much speed. I was given a load of hay to bring in behind the pickup and even though I was going slow, one hub started smoking bad.
So there I was along side the road with a burning hub threatening to set the whole wagon on fire.
I only had one source of water, and it wasn't much, but it was enough to keep it from blazing. After making sure that the fire was out, I unhitched and left it there. I came in and told Dad and my uncle that I had had enough, I had told them that the wagon wasn't up to the task and trying to pull it 20 miles down the road loaded with hay was stupid.
After having to put up with the expected grief (I was only 16), my uncle proceeded to go get the wagon and show me how to bring it in, since I was obviously too stupid to do it.
He had lost about a 1/4 of the load to fire by the time he pulled in and we had a heck of a time saving the rest of it. That was the last time the wagon was used.

4 years back, we were coming East on I80 between Lincoln and Omaha, when I look in my rear view mirror and see this jeep with flames underneath it. Slowed down to let him pass, and then made a BIG show to get him to pull over. This is what happened when he slowed down. To this day, if you know where to look, you can still see the black on the shoulder. Greg

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About 40 years ago Dad was cutting wheat for another farmer. The man supplied an old white tractor and trailer for Dad to put the wheat in. Dad would drive the truck from field to field and I would drive the combine then He would get back on and cut some more. Finally he tells Me to take the truck to the far end of the field. Man this is great I get to drive a tractor trailer so off I went, when I got there I couldn't help but rev it up a few times to here I back fire, then I shut it off. Then silence except for a crackling sound. Yep set the field on fire. Then I fludded the old truck in a pannick to move it. Final tally One truck, one trailer, 300 bushels of wheat and about 2 acres that had not been cut yet. Not good day at all.

Ron

Years ago i was welding the roll cage on a dozer and managed to set some oily rags in the shop on fire. I figured no problem i had leather welding gloves on both hands. I reached down and grabbed the rags with my hand and threw them out the door to the gravel. At just the wrong time my father comes into the door and gets hit square in the chest with fire. He freaks and throws his arms out and the rags go way under the dozer. I could not reach the rags and had to fetch a shovel to drag them out. We had a shouting match over that one.

is that a gas can to the left of the jeep?

Two Fire stories, I was chopping hay into unloader wagons, and a friend was hauling. When he got back to the barn, he noticed the wagon was smoking. He had the presence of mind to haul it right to the manure pit and unload it right into the pit. Another time a young friend was on the Harvest run from Texas to Montana, and combining a field of grain. The combine ahead of him had a hot bearing on the straw spreader, which set the field on Fire. He and the others had the presence of mind to combine around the fire and take away it's fuel.

Yes, that is the gas can, after it blew about 40 feet in the air! He had big mudder tires on it, and they each blew one at a time. Made for an interesting Sunday afternoon. Greg

Years ago I was working on a 2-way radio install on an old firetruck, at a rural volunteer firestation. Asked the cheif what the chances of having a fire were, while I had the truck down. He indicated not very high, as grass was not dry, and was not heating season. Hardly got the words out of his mouth, when the fire phone went off. I immediately started restoring truck to usability - and had it back as he hung up the phone. Asked him if I should hang around or come back another day - told me to get up in the cab!
Got a couple miles away from the station to find a wheat field afire, and a combine sitting in the middle of field. Not yet on fire. Chief yelled for me to get in and drive around the fire, and he manned the high pressure hose off the back of the truck. Donno what gear I had that truck in to this day, but I got it circled around the fire, saving most of the field and the combine. Farmer was happy to say the least!

Years & years ago, farmers would burn off brush on the hills around here. I remember one night riding in a car in the Kickapoo Valley and looking up at the ridgeline to the West, all lit up with fire. (I think this process was called "instant pasture"). One does not see this type of burning here anymore and today much of the landscape is very brushy. Mark SW Wis.

Oh yeah. Kids, stupid kids. Me and about four or five buddies when we were about 8 or so along the back fence along the woodline. I don't know who had the matches but it wasn't me cause I had no reason to have matches when I was 8. Honest, it wasn't me. But someone lit the dry grass and leaves along the fence and peed on it and put it out. And then lit it again and peed and put it out. That happened a few times and we all ran out of pee and couldn't put that last one out. Back then the fire department was all volunteer. Come to think of it, still are. When the volunteer guys showed up, not even the little fire trucks could get back into the woods. Good thing it was surrounded by corn fields and an orchard. It all grew back, and the rotted out stuff got cleaned out. Figure it was about 100 acres. All grew back though. One of those you just can't take back and never did again. We got the snot beat out of us for that and deserved it too. It don't get much stupider than that. I'm one of the reasons Mom had grey hair by the time she was 29. My brother was 10 and the other reason she had grey hair by the time she was 29, but I don't think he was there for that one. He was there for the dry hay field though, not me. That came from lighting some fire crackers around a hot 4th of July that someone gave him for doin chores around their place while they were on vacation for a week. Took the volunteer guys a long time to get there for that one too. Again, I wasn't involved but saw it unfolding like everyone else did. And I got beat with my brother for that one too for general purposes by Dad whom I was with at the time. I think at that point Dad knew that I would've been in on it if I wasn't with him, and intent was close enough to being involved for him. Yep, I got beat and would've deserved it too if I had been there.

I ever tell you about the time we tried to de-stink a skunk and keep it for a pet? That nearly got us killed by all of the neighbors, and Mom and Dad. Just one of the many times our crying mother was gonna drive us down to the orphanage and just drop us off and drive off and leave us.

Mark