Hot dry and on fire

A-z farmer · July 06, 2020, 06:37:40 PM

This year has been very dry and we are at 14.5 inches and we normally have 21.5 by now and 45 inches for the year .This is a picture from last night and it shows how fast things happen .It is our neighboring farmer and it happened while he was mowing second cutting hay.He had a fire extinguisher but it did not work .It only took 5 minutes for it to look like this .

So make sure all extinguishers are operable

JV · July 06, 2020, 08:46:01 PM

They go fast. A neighbor's tractor burned in the hay field while he was at dinner. My brother-in-law got his zero turn stuck and the hot exhaust set the grass on fire. His fire extinguisher wouldn't put it out. He got away from it before the fuel tank blew in a big fireball. Better the mower than him.

Bruno of NH · July 06, 2020, 08:46:40 PM

I'm going to get one for Big Bob after seeing that.

farmfromkansas · July 06, 2020, 09:05:54 PM

There was a combine sitting in a field burned down to the wheels, but some junk guys came and drug it away. Never know when something like that may happen. I have a water fire extinguisher on my baler. You just fill them half full, then use the air compressor to put pressure on it. Tried it once, worked pretty good.

Southside · July 06, 2020, 09:14:48 PM

Had visible smoke roll across the farm today and it smelled like a forest fire. Looked around and could not find the source, called Forestry and they didn't know anything about anyone burning. A little bit later they called me back and said all was Ok, a guy a couple miles away was burning. It's been over 100 with the heat index for days, windy, and dry, dry, dry, but good time to burn... :

btulloh · July 06, 2020, 10:48:20 PM

Hard to believe anybody around here would try to burn right now. This would be red flag weather if there was any breeze at all. Probably should be anyway. I won't even cut grass or bush hog right now because it's so dry and dusty. Plus sparking a rock with the bush hog could easily start a fire.

Seeing that combine makes me think I should mount an extinguisher on the Kubota.

thecfarm · July 07, 2020, 05:46:20 AM

I remember years ago, it was dry and I do mean dry. I was many miles form the house and drove by a place that had a good size brush fire going. I mentioned, they should not be doing that, it's way to dry. Not a mile down the road, we met a firetruck, lights sirens and all!!! I betcha they got a good talking too. :

I grew up before burn permits. But I had a Father that knew when to burn and not to burn. We use to burn the fields here and many brush piles too.

Southside · July 07, 2020, 06:22:12 AM

A-Z was that a Krone?

nativewolf · July 07, 2020, 06:30:59 AM

Quote from: Southside on July 06, 2020, 09:14:48 PM
Had visible smoke roll across the farm today and it smelled like a forest fire. Looked around and could not find the source, called Forestry and they didn't know anything about anyone burning. A little bit later they called me back and said all was Ok, a guy a couple miles away was burning. It's been over 100 with the heat index for days, windy, and dry, dry, dry, but good time to burn... :

Get a good site prep burn with this heat ,

A-z farmer · July 07, 2020, 07:08:30 AM

South side . Yes it was a krone big M mower .
They had a new one delivered yesterday to try out.
We had our skid steer catch on fire last month sitting in the barn and we had not even used it that day .We have fire extinguishers on all our equipment and in our buildings 10 pounders and 5 pounders in vehicles.This is a picture of our skid steer .
We are very fortunate to be able to drag the skid steer out of the barn but we tipped it over in the process.

Walnut Beast · July 07, 2020, 07:15:11 AM

Did you figure out where it caught on fire

Walnut Beast · July 07, 2020, 07:16:26 AM

Glad you where around and got it out

Southside · July 07, 2020, 08:37:10 AM

Clearly tipping it over caused the majority of the damage, at least in the eyes of an insurance adjuster. >:(

Nebraska · July 07, 2020, 10:33:04 AM

Sorry about the skid steer, glad you didn't loose the building.

reride82 · July 07, 2020, 07:23:45 PM

Yikes! We were renting a newer 2388 international combine about 20 years ago, and it was drier than usual. I was about 4 hours into harvest when conditions got right and the static electricity started to build on the machine. There were balls of dirt/grain dust that were igniting on any sloped piece of tin. I shut everything down in time to smell smoke and burned through all three extinguishers on site, but saved the combine. My dad got there with our neighbor and he recommended we hang a chain off the rear axle to ground the machine. With all the moving parts, dry air, and dust it becomes a static electricity nightmare. Once we did that, the problem went away. Long story short, ground that new mower to prevent the next fire if its that dry.

Levi

A-z farmer · July 07, 2020, 10:11:37 PM

That is a very good idea Reride82 I will have to try that .
I posted the pictures just as a reminder to everyone that things happen fast and with out warning.
My son had just come back from mowing hay at night and I called him to check on machine in the same barn as the skid steer and he found it on fire .
He grabbed a new 10 pound extinguishers but it did not work .I grabbed a lot more but we were not able to put it out it was too hot .We think it was an electric fire that started it or the interstate battery shorted out .This is the first machine we have lost to fire .We take down the belly pans from all our equipment spring and fall every year and pressure wash them but this still has us wondering.
We have a 2000 gallon tank of water right next to where we pulled the skid steer and we had it out before the fire department came .