My lot is on fire!

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pdqdl

Old enough to know better.
AS Supporting Member.
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Or so I was told by a fellow that used to work for me. He wanted help from me to find someone with a tracked machine that could move his burning piles further away from stuff that he couldn't afford to burn up. Stuff like his buildings, accumulated machinery (you know how that works, don't you), and the neighboring business materials. I gave him a referral to call, but I would be surprised if they help.

Watch for news about a big fire in Grandview, Mo. I can see the smoke column this morning from about 5 miles away.

He told me the fire department gave up on putting out the fire. They told him "Don't call us back unless the woods catches on fire".
He and his father have been accumulating wood and wood chips for many years. I measured about 2 acres of woodpile/landfill/parked area

2006, looks like they moved in.
1632595723690.png

2013: doing ok! But... that wood is piling up.
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2015: lots of equipment, ...and more wood.
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Spring, 2021: That's a really big spread and reflects a lot of growth in their business.
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I would guess that it would be a good business plan to make sure your valuable stuff never gets piled on top of the wood fill area, nor close to the piles of logs, either.
 
Take excavator and a lot time to put that out - wood chips - like peat bogs. coal mines or similar areas . They can burn for years underground due to trapped O2. If conditions are right they can have spontaneous combustion as well.

About 15 years ago another tree service in town got their log/fill area on fire. It took several weeks for KCPD to put it out, and they had two excavators and a fire crew working 24 hours a day. The excavators were ripping the pile apart, and the firemen were dousing the wood as they dug it up.

Bee Tree had a much bigger pile than Everest. I'd guess it was filling a ravine to about 30 feet deep. The owner told me he was given a jaw-dropping bill for the service when it was finally put out, too. $160,000 comes to mind, but that seems cheap, even for 15 years ago. Maybe that was the fine...
 
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