PSA: Don't Play With Matches!

I spent my afternoon explaining my stupidity to the fire department. What you see is my annual burn pile, partly burned, and about 20 acres of scorched cornfield. I set the pile on fire and less that 5 minutes later the fire was out of the reach of my 100' hose. Two tanker trucks, two brush-fire trucks and the neighbors tractor/disker got it under control. The home to the left (barely visible) is over a 1/4 mile from my burn pile. The fire got to his driveway in about 10 minutes. No people hurt, no structures damaged. A big thanks to the Bremen & Bourbon, Indiana fire departments.

Moderators, I couldn't find a place for "Look how stupid I am!" photos. Please put this where it belongs.

Scary how easy it is to see your own stupidity after the fact. Doesn't really look like a lot of fuel left in that field, but they can sure spread fast and build up a heck of a lot of heat in a hurry.

I'm kind of surprised they didn't pull your pile apart more than it was. Anytime I've been around a fire that started out of a pile like that they tore it to pieces to spread everywhere and soaked the snot out of the thing to be doubly sure it wasn't going to flare up again in the middle of the night.

Hope any bills from it aren't too high.

Not a lot of fuel, but enough to spread over 2000' in about 15 minutes. The photo is at 17mm so it is a bit deceiving. At the other end, it burned a path about 300' wide. It burned right up to the neighbor's lawn. The fire department already said they would be sending me a bill and to pay what I could, but not worry about it. They do not pursue accidental fires. Or stupid ones I guess. I suppose if I can afford $10K worth of camera stuff, a small donation to the local fire department isn't out of line. By the way, I had 100' of garden hose deployed just for such emergencies. I knew I was losing that fight in about 30 seconds.

I had my grandson over for his birthday this evening. We showed him the field. He said, "Grandpa, don't you know you are not supposed to play with matches?" Well said, kid.

I'm betting your pucker-factor was right up there.

Oh, yes. I thought sure it was going to get to the two nearest houses. We still have standing crops on three sides of us. If it would have gotten in there, there is nothing to do but try to protect the buildings in the path. You can't put out a dry corn-field fire. All you can do is contain it try to keep it from jumping roads. Stupid. I was just plain stupid.

On the bright side you have a good excuse to do a detailed photo based essay on fire safety.

That reminds me, I need new smoke detectors in the house. And a CO alarm, too.

A teachable moment. Maybe Obama will fly down and have a beer with you!!!

Seriously, though, it takes a strong person to admit their mistakes and learn from them. I puckered a little just reading! Remember............. only YOU can prevent cornfield fires!!

Accidents do happen. I probably wouldn't have guessed that the fire would get that much out of control if I were setting it up before hand... but looking at your picture, the dried out cornfield does look a lot like tinder... I'm glad the fire department was able to get it under control .

Perhaps you could make a site for a campfire to prevent this from happening again?

How far was your burn pile from the edge of the corn field? Did the wind catch it?

mike_d wrote in post #17209700
How far was your burn pile from the edge of the corn field? Did the wind catch it?

The pile is only about 10' from the field. My BIG (as in RF-HUGE) mistake was not waiting until AFTER the all that fuel was tilled under. I usually do this in late November. And yes, it was windy. Can you spell S-T-U-P-I-D? I can't believe I actually did that!

Excuse my ignorance, but why exactly do you have an "annual burn pile"?

andrikos wrote in post #17210042
Excuse my ignorance, but why exactly do you have an "annual burn pile"?

I'm no CSI, but it's probably to get rid of burnable material that has accumulate in the previous 12 months...
That's just a wild guess but I'd reckon the words "annual" and "burn" are reasonable clues.

philwillmedia wrote in post #17210142
I'm no CSI, but it's probably to get rid of burnable material that has accumulate in the previous 12 months...
That's just a wild guess but I'd reckon the words "annual" and "burn" are reasonable clues.

That doesn't explain why it has to be burned. Lots of stuff is burnable; not much of it gets burned, not even accidentally.

philwillmedia wrote in post #17210142
I'm no CSI, but it's probably to get rid of burnable material that has accumulate in the previous 12 months...
That's just a wild guess but I'd reckon the words "annual" and "burn" are reasonable clues.

A lot of the logs look like firewood.
The rest can be mulched/composted.
The notion of "annual burn wood pile" sounds archaic and unnecessary...

Grampa Geokras, time to change your ways...