Pick your day, and stay with your fire. This one was doing great, and we broke at 1:00 for a snack and water. Susan had errands to run and I went back to the fire. Then the wind came up, a solid 15 mph with gusts. I busted the fire up with the tractor and got a four gallon backpack sprayer. I started putting out wood, coals, and hot ash. I refilled three times before Susan got back, and then she stirred ashes while I put on more water. We used 20 gallons total, through a backpack weed sprayer, and the fire did not get away.
I wish I'd seen this video some years ago.
ReplyDeleteWe mostly heated with wood for a while and while splitting wood one bitterly cold day I started a small fire in the old style barbecue grill to provide a little hand warming, and use up some of the debris.
While I was stacking wood, a spark leapt out and set the Zoysia grass on fire. The stiff wind had already begun to drive the flames towards the wooden shed.
The wooden shed contained our driving mower, multiple cans of gasoline for both the mowers and the generator, and also the oxygen and acetylene tanks.
Because I had foolishly made zero firefighting preparations I became concerned.
I grabbed a bucket and sprinted towards the hose bib on the back of the house to find it frozen. That was the same for the front. I zipped inside and quickly found that by the time I got the bucket filled in the sink, it would be far to late.
I zoomed back outside to attempt to stomp out the fire and had begun the clown dance of firefighting when I saw a five gallon bucket about half full of water and totally frozen solid.
I grabbed the bucket, smashed it against the ground and removed the 3 gallon or so ice cube from the shattered remains of the plastic bucket.
I then put my back to the wind, knelt, and used the giant ice cube to literally rub out the fire.
I succeeded in putting out the flames and the only signs of the near catastrophe was a large burned area of grass.
Before my wife got home it snowed and covered up the evidence.
I still told her what happened and I had not thought about my experience for a lot of years.
Watching your video brought back a very vivid memory.
I learned my lesson and I'm much more careful now.
I like the idea of using a block of ice!
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