petrol and firelighting

[dazdmc]

Now I know it's not strictly arborist but I bet all of you guys burn waste wood and scrap at some time or other. Most if not all of you would have heard how dangerous this can be and wouldn't do it, but if it helps someone else to not make the same mistake then it's worthwhile.
My brother (mid 30's) was burning some waste wood and garden rubbish in his old waste water tank yesterday, well he couldn' get the fire to light properly. He proceeded to fill a small cup with petrol and throw it on to speed things up. Well, nothing happened??? So he poured some more on, just as he done that the vapours from the first cup ignited and went boom, he jamp back, fell over, knocked the petrol can over and is now in hospital with 25% burns covering everything from the waistline up. He had the presence of mind to jump in his garden pond to put the flames out and then ran insde the house and jumped in the cold shower. Somehow he then managed to make sure the waste fire was extinguished, put the dogs in the kennel, write a note for his wife and then drove 18 miles to accident and emergency dep't before collapsing with shock!!! He is going thankfully going to pull through, hopefully without too much scarring, especially on his face. We already have been told that he will deffinately require plastic surgery on his back, but we have to wait and find out about the rest of his body, but so far it's looking positive. What I can't get over, is he is old enough and normally wise enough to know better, if he seen me about to try something like that I would be in big trouble! I just cant understand what was going through his mind??? As I say, we have been told he will be ok, albeit with some scarring, but he' alive, and one lucky guy.


daz

 

[Dale]

Gasoline is a baddddddd choice of fire-starter. Kerosene has a much lower flaspoint, and used motor oil is the best alternative if it absolutely is needed to kickstart a fire. Hope he recovers well.

 

[bigbadbob]

Glad he is going to be ok, have seen some bad stuff from gasoiline.
I use diesel, no problem.

 

[iowawoodcutter]

I use charcoal lighter fluid...

 

[JeffL]

Yup, definitely diesel. Doesnt flash quite as badly as gasoline.

 

[BIG JAKE]

Gasoline is a baddddddd choice of fire-starter. Kerosene has a much lower flaspoint, and used motor oil is the best alternative if it absolutely is needed to kickstart a fire. Hope he recovers well.

what he said-had a few close calls myself. More careful now.

 

[pdqdl]

When I was a young fellow of about 13 years, my fether set me and my brother to lighting some fires under piles of trees that he had pushed up with a dozer. Gas was cheap, and it lit much easier than the diesel fuel.

Does anyone hear the disaster train coming ?

I don't recall that we got any training on the right way to light a brush fire, but it was pretty simple: climb up on top of the brush pile, pour 5 gallons of gas on it, leave a trail of gas away from the pyre, and then light. Watch with keen fascination !

It was a windy day, apparently, when we lit the brush pile at the top of the hill. I don't recall if it was luck, insight, or training (doubtful), but we laid out the ignitor trail upwind. When we lit the match, the whole field behind the brush pile went up with a gigantic whoosh. It was solid flames covering the ground for at least 100' past where we poured the gas.

That made a huge impression on me, and I have a much improved insight into how brush fires should not be started.

By the way: charcoal lighter comes in two general varieties: slow lighting, and the thinner fast lighting variety. The fast light variety is not really any different than Coleman fuel, or the stuff available in years past as "white gas". It's not really any safer than regular gas, as it evaporates at room temperature, and will leave a highly flammable gas vapor wherever it is used.