Dumping Water on the Burn Pile

Yesterday's collage included a picture of Steve pouring water on the burn pile at the end of the day. However, I realized that unless you KNEW what you were looking at, the picture was completely confusing. After all, how many people use a tractor's bucket to pour water on a burn pile?! In fact, before we start our burn, Steve puts our tractor nearby, raises the bucket up, and fills it with water as a standby in case of an emergency. (The people next door have had run-away burns TWICE; just last week they had the fire department come out to douse a burn...YIKES.) We also have a hose there and I routinely spray around the edges of the burn if I see any indication of scorching.

Steve discovered last year that dumping a bucket of water from the tractor is perfect for dousing the fire! Using a hose works ok, but dumping a massive amount really drowns and cools the whole burn area. We have discovered that using a hose to douse a fire isn't thorough and even when you're SURE you put the fire out, DAYS LATER, the embers will sometimes burst into flame again. It's hard to put the base of a fire out completely, but this method really works!

It's also fun to photograph! This collage shows pictures of two separate water dumps. (He put three loads of water on just to be sure the fire was completely out.)