Best way to lite brush pile

Many of us guys would use a small nuke to start a brush pile if we could get our hands on one.

More Power...yahhhhhhhhhhh

If you seriously take this advice..... better do it during the night....large plumes of black smoke will bring unwanted official persons wanting to fine you for burning tires..... It is a good way for the local fire district to make $500 from you for properly disposing of your hazardous waste.

The best way to burn a large brush pile is to never let it get large in the first place. Start a small fire 5 or 6 feet across, and you can burn even the greenest wood as you clear, or trim by throwing it on as you cut. Large piles of (green) brush need to sit 6 months or so, or they will not compress enough to burn well.... On a rainy day, it will be hard to start...no matter the "whooshes" from throwing diesel on it. A pile a year or so old, is best started on the windward side by creating a small fire underneath and feeding it untill it can get some coals on the ground of its own. Once its starts drying out and burning the brush above it...it will usually take off. If you have a very large brush pile, that is dry, you might want to start the fire on the leeward side instead. A huge dry pile going up all at once will let loose lots of sparks and singe anything close by....including branches 40 feet in the air and to the side.

No...We can't do that, I'm gonna pull the heads so the ole lady can plant strawberries in the cylinders. Just set it there by the old divan in the front yard......Not to close to the house, the coon hounds won't be able to get out from under the front porch.

Oh yes....be sure to get a Burn Permit first! We get ours online via the NC Fire something......Maybe fire and wildlife......but be sure to get one and SAVE the email they send you.

We have had the Fire Dept show up twice on us! No kidding.......once it was "necessary" (enough said) but the other time they were just nosy .....and they can fine you and if they do have to "help" with a fire gone 'wild....they can try to MAKE YOU PAY FOR IT if you did not get the Burn Permit.

We get the Permit but put the dates spread out over 30 days. That way, if the pile is out but the wind flares it up 3 days later.....and causes a fire, then we are still covered.

And gas is not really a good idea.......use diesel fuel. We dump our old bad gas on it but we really only let the kids fire it up twice with the bow-arrow torches. It is best to just light a small fire on one side and then let it slowly spread.

DO have water hoses ready. Our Burn Pile area is in deep woods but we have made a dirt berm about 4 feet high around it. We have unlimited water source from a spring fed Cistern and so we just wet the whole woods down all around the pile for as far as the shooter-hose will spray it. It is a good job for a 12 year old.

Good luck and stay safe.

I like to tie an old or new piece of plastic over the top of the pile ( doesn't need to cover the whole pile ) If the wood under the plastic is already dry fine , if not I wait till it is fairly dry . I then wait till after a good soaking rain or a snow . I then remove the plastic & pour about a pint of kerosene or diesel fuel down into the center of the dry area & pour a small trail of fuel away from the pile . Light the trail & stand back . After most of the pile has burned you might have to push the edges toward the center . I never burn when it's dry or windy .

I use dryer lint. I don't know what it is about dryer lint, but that is always what I use to get things going. It gets things going in a hurry, even if it's a bit windy.

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True story-

An aquaintance was getting ready to burn a pile of leaves and brush. Had it all piled in a road ditch. Poured on the gasoline, and the cell phone rqang. So he took the call. In the mean time the fumes had gathered together and settled into the ditch. When he tossed in the match the resulting explosion blew the windows out of his neighbor's house.

Be careful. Get some help from someone with experience. Turn off your cell phone.

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I was burning garbage in a barrel today and threw in some old roofing paper. It really lit up.

I'm probably making all the wrong assumptions here.

If you need help starting a fire ...
1. Get a lawn chair.
2. Sit in it.
3. Hire a retired firefighter to burn your piles for you.

From your message it is impossible to get any measure of your experience with fire. I have never wondered about how to start a fire. I've always concentrated on not ending up with a fire that I couldn't control.
My best advice is to start with ridiculously small piles, clear all flammable material off the ground around the pile and have lots of water on hand. Then after several years of that you might try larger piles. It doesn't sound like this scenario will fit your situation.
I hope that your conditions are a lot safer than I am imagining.

A pile about 10ft round and maybe 6-8 ft high. Rural land. No nearby structures. Pond and creek on the land, no well. Starting a fire is not an issue. The issue is more about keeping the fire going so it will burn the whole pile.

The best way to burn a brush pile that big is with a day off and a case of beer.

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LONE PINE FARM
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Boer goats, Angora goats, Eclectic mix of poultry

No problems burning brush in New Mexico

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You guys got it all wrong.

Get on the walke talke and call in an air strike. Tell em Charlie is about 1 click due north of your AO. And dug in deep. It takes about 20 minuets for the A4’s to get there.

Good Luck with that

Dave

You don't say where your from.. But if your east of the plains states where snow just left. Or in the area of deciduous forests that are dry as all get out right now.
You might want to wait a bit to burn brush. For instance here in NEPA this is the only time of year that a brush pile shouldn't be burned. All the fields, woods and areas in between are tinder dry. Once green up happens most of the danger of the fire getting away from you is past.


The best way of burning IMHO is a combination of two posts above.

1 add sticks and branches to a burning fire. I've never had luck with getting a large pile to burn in one shot. I always end up with a half burnt pile if I do it that way.

2. It also takes about a case of beer. What's better than that is a 1/2 keg and a few neighbors.

Locally you can only have open burn piles certain times of the year and then are requested to call into the State Forestry Department for a permit number (in case it gets out of hand).

Personnly I like to age my burn piles a couple of years. Really burn down to nothing but ashes. Still shovels, rakes and a front end loader can come in handy.

I have four fairly widely spaced apart burn pile sites on the farm.

On only structures, we have a lot of 'bolt out of the blue' lightening srikes in the area.

I sure hope no one is burning today - at least not near me. It is so DRY out there. We planned to fire up our Outdoor Wood Oven but it is so windy and dry that we are not even going to fire it up.

Stay safe everyone.

I knew I was forgetting something! I didn't bring any beer.

I closed my cabinet shop 2 1/2 years ago and after 20 years had accumulated a lot of scrap. Old jigs and patterns galore. Anyway I just started a pile over a couple of downed trees from clearing property. So this pile was about 40 feet wide, 20 feet across, and about 10 feet high. It's been sitting there about over 2 years. This morning I climbed up about half-way and poured a half gallon of diesel on it. One match and a napkin and it was on. Wind was dead as could be for the first 3 hours and then it picked up big time! It kept changing directions, it would blow one side and then stop for a few minutes and then would blow the other side. After an hour the wind died down and I was able to get close enough to push leftovers toward the center. After 8 hours it was just a pile of hot ashes.

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Ah heck let me help



big rockpile

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Our local tire shop keeps a pile of blown out tires in front of the shop for guys to pick up for burning brush piles. He got tired of guys coming in asking for old tires to burn all the time, so now he just keeps a pile of them out front. Just take what you need. And guess what's across the road from the tire shop? Yep, the local fire department. I guess we do things just alittle different in the ozarks.....

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