Watch Your Ashes!

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

semipro

Minister of Fire
Jan 12, 2009
4,340
SW Virginia
Everyone, just a reminder as the burning season gets rolling.
Please be careful when you dump your ashes that none are live.
Every year there are numerous reports here of fatal fires originating from ashes dumped too soon.

The best practices you'll find widely recommended here include the use of two ash cans filled in sequence so that one sits full (outside) until the other is filled. Then the most recently filled one goes outside to sit while the other is used.

Burn safely.
 
My ashes usually go into the dog waste compost barrel that I have buried in the back yard. I usually throw some snow or water in with them.
 
Ours go from the stove to the hod, which goes right outside into a steel can with a locking lid that sits on stones. Took us all season to fill that can last year, and we emptied it into the garden sometime in July.
 
Good post since a) several newbies are here and may not equate ashes with being a fire danger since no flames to some folks = safe, b) about now many folks have probably started to accumulate some ashes and c) without any snow on the ground dumping them outside straight from the woodstove on to dead grass/leaves could result in some bad experiences.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bag of hammers
This past summer, 2 houses next door to each other on my road were burned down. One of the residents apparently took some cardboard boxes outside, lit the trash barrel and walked away. Dry leaves (and no working garden hose) did the rest. This was not a wood stove related incident, and very careless action on his part, but still a stark reminder of how things can / will run away in the yard, and the fact that others may also be at risk.
 
+1 GLO (good looking out)
 
Good advise. Thanks for the remminders.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.