We had a close call last Tuesday when my neighbour decided to try to burn a bit of a brush pile. About 2 PM in the afternoon, the wind came up and spread his pile across his pasture and into my timber land and pasture. Lucky my other neighbour had a 500 gallon water tank full of water and came to the rescue, but not after burning about 10-15 acres and about half the hair on my head. Wind was the killer, it kept gusting from all directions and real hard to control -no way to do a back burn.
Spent the next 2 days cutting fireguard and doing mop up and then on Saturday we got a snow storm.
Message of my story - 1] the weather is real UNUSUAL these days - VERY hot and dry one minute and then snowing the next, so be real careful with fire, even this early in the year. 2] I have a 350 gallon water tank [see pic below] for my truck or trailer, but it was sitting on the ground, empty and the pump was in the shop. [Fortunately my neighbour was set up cuz he had been doing a bit of burning himself the week before and was prepared. - I was not prepared but will be now]
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/31497/DSCN0831.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/31497/DSCN0835.JPG)
the top pic is looking east from my place - this field burnt off in less than 5 minutes. Second picture is the snow on saturday - a real BLESSING in disguise for me.
Fortunately no one hurt, only a bit of spruce and poplar regen and a few mature poplar and spruce were burnt, but a good wake up call.
Tom
You were real lucky, the US Forest service did a controlled burn on the ND, SD border several weeks ago on a windy, low humidity day. The intent was to burn 150 acres of grass,--- 14,000 acres later they finally got it out. The ranchers that were depending on grazing this summer are at a loss. The estimate is 1000 pairs with no where to go! Keith
Sorry to hear of your loss but it at least was not that bad.
On the topic of fire suppression, I am putting together a fire wagon trailer for prevention/fire suppression. Sounds like what your neighbor had.
I have pretty much determined where I will get the equipment. One of the suppliers is Cascade Fire Equipment. They have a spot to input a coupon code for a discount. Does anyone happen to know what the current code might be.
The other supplier is Fire Hose Direct and they do not have a discount code but I am always looking to save where I can.
Thanks
Out in the open was dry here. Will be back to dry again real quick. We been having showers here off and on for a couple days. Won't take much for it to get back to being dry again. Have seen 2 fires on this hill. One right next to my lot,WOW!! and one just up the road. More WOW!! Glad no major damage for you.
Thanks guys - YUP lucky is the story of the week for me!
My big challenge is trying to be prepared early, but it is hard to have a tank full of water and not freeze the closure valves at night - my overnight temps are going down to 27/28 F with day time highs of 60-70 F. May have to look at some sort of heat [heat lamp in a box] or something.
The other big challenge and it sounds like you folks saw a bit of this in ND is the unusual wind events we are getting. Over the past 2-3 years, here in my area, we get afternoon wind events that are like small dust devils - in the bush they are blowing down single and clumps of trees here and there at random and out in the open they will pick up a windrow of hay and spread it everywhere.
This is what happened last Tuesday- wind event from afternoon heating and - you know the story.
In terms of setting up a tanker unit - I am using Honda high pressure pumps [WX15 and WX25 I believe] - they put out about 100 PSI which is good for a smaller tanker [200-500 gallon] - they cost about $900 a piece, but always start and run all day if you have a good water supply. I have about 15 -100 foot lengths of 1 1/2 fire hose for use if I have a pond or other ground source for water, but use 5/8 econo fire hose on the tanker [saves water] and easy to handle.
I have also found that logging suppliers and industrial hose dealers have better prices for hose and fire tools than the formal fire equipment suppliers.
I feel for the ranchers who lost their range - Up here, with the cattle market down and many old timers leaving the business, grass is not an issue cuz cow numbers are way down.
Tom
Would really take a normal light to keep it warm. Just have to make it to keep the heat in and the cold wind out. Maybe a box and a blanket or rugs,Or just through a blanket over it and the light under it?? Don't take much at those temps. I have no idea how big your valves are,a magnetic heater?