LoneCowboy

Fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, been mowing away and it's been extremely hot and dry lately. We used to get afternoon thunderstorms, but so far, nothing. It simply hasn't rained since Memorial day.
It's very dry out.

Mowing away, we've mowed this lady for a few years now, we mow it every year. But it's got a lot of tight little turns, trees, etc, so we decide to take the little green monster (riding mower) in addition to the TC45 with 6' Bushhog. I'll go thru and do all the big stuff and the wife can do clean up with the little mower after I've cut it down. Should go much faster.

So, I start with the portion along the road and then I'm working on the north side of the house. Oh, the lady has moved out of the house, so the water is turned off.
I'm zipping along, all of a sudden my wife comes running up
"Fire!!!!"
Fire???
Fire, over there? SW corner?

WTF?
Go running over there
Yep, grass fire.
****, she's called 911, because we have no water to put it out.

I ran back adn got the big cutter and created a dead space where it was tall. The neighbor had real short dead grass, so it was much slower over there but int he tall stuff, it started running, so I cut that down real fast.

The wife is looking for a shovel, anything. (the house is empty)
After about 5 minutes the fire department shows up and whips out the big guns and gets it under control

In less than 5 minutes, on a (rare) non-windy day, it easily covered 100 feet by 100 feet.


The firefighter said it was 8% humidity yesterday (I believe it) and it was easily mid-90's (or more, it was hot), guy said maybe the mower blade hit something and sparked and that's it. Nothing you can do about it.
Either that or someone threw a ciggareete butt at my wife as she was working along the road. (that's my theory)

But damn did it go fast.
We keep a little 1.5lb 1A,10B:C fire extinguisher on the tractors, but forget it. By the time she even noticed it was burning. (she said she was making a pass north and thinking "who the hell would be burning on such a hot dry day?" and then turns the mower around to go back south and goes "oh ****!". Going ot have to think of something bigger/better to put on the truck. If it had been windy, it would have been really ugly.
No damage, although I'm sure the neighbor is confused, upset, whatever. The lady who's house we were doing said that neighbor doesn't talk to her because she lets her lawn/pasture go and only cuts it once a year.

I said I bet she really wont' talk to you now!.

be careful out there.

Brian H
Longmont CO
Pasture Maintenance
NH TN75DA, NH TC45D,
06 Chevy Duramax 2500HD
03 Freightliner Columbia MBE 460

Dougster

GeesusGawd Lone!!! Do be careful!!!

One of the distinct advantages of ditch digging over bushhogging is that fires are a lot less likely to happen... although I sure have spilled my share of fuel on myself while refueling!!!

I do generally require that a working hose be available to me on my residential jobsites... and often bring my own... although that is mostly for keeping the dust down, the neighbors happy and the Red Beast reasonably clean.

We've talked about the need for (and/or legal requirement) to have a fire extinguisher handy... but this does make you think twice that the size and type of extinguisher has a lot of bearing on whether or not it would do any good.

Dougster™

gunmaker

JD 2520 w/46bh, 200cx loader, meyers 6ft plow
jd 425 w/54"mmm& 54"plow

LoneCowboy

it was way too much excitement for the day.
let me tell you
don't like fire

Never had such a thing happen.
We decided to put the LGM away after that, and just use the big guy. don't know why the bushhog doesn't seem to spark them. But the firefighter said it was pretty common and there simply isn't anything you can do.

Brian H
Longmont CO
Pasture Maintenance
NH TN75DA, NH TC45D,
06 Chevy Duramax 2500HD
03 Freightliner Columbia MBE 460

PaulChristenson

Yes...there is...GET THE HECK OUT OF THE WAY...

Glad to hear you are BOTH ALL RIGHT...

Paul in VT

I used to own an ant farm but had to give it up. I couldn't find tractors small enough to fit it.
-- Steven Wright

Mickey

Brain, glad everything turned out OK in the end. Wild fires are nasty.

Sunday PM the wife and I were out and was looking North and at first I thought Mt St. Helen had popped its cork again as there was a large column of smoke in the correct direction and we couldn't see the Mt. Later in the day we heard on the news of several large wild fires are blazing S of the Mt.

On the news last night was an article of a large grass fire along the Cloumbia river in N central Oregon. Was large enough it jumped across the hwy.

We are major producers of grass seed and it has been a tradition and need to burn the fields after harvest. Things are better today than in the past. Used to be down the valley smoke from the filed burning was so bad it completely blocked visability in I5. Pile-up were not than unusual.

1970 Bolens 1257 w/tiller
2005 Cub 3204 48" deck
Yanmar Fx24D
5' Howse rotary mower
RSB 1300 Yanmar tiller

jbrumberg

LC:

I am glad that you and your wife were unharmed. As you stated had there been some wind it would have gotten ugly real fast . You can not outrun a wildfire. Jay

NH TC29DA with 14LA FEL with 60" HD QA bucket, cutting edge & toothbar, weighted R-1's, FOPS, CCM M-160 58" tiller, Tebben MD 60" Rotary Cutter, Woods LR 108 96" Landscape Rake, Woods GB60 60" Box Blade

Deanster

I've got to ask. Did you marry your employee, or employ your wife?

___________________________
Cub Cadet Yanmar EX3200, CL300 Loader w/ Rankin toothbar, Land Pride bucket forks, CB75 Backhoe w/ mechanical thumb, Woods LR72 Landscape Rake, Rankin RC20-72 rotary cutter.