Never trust your ash bucket, or, how to entertain your neighbors with a watering can

[tomWright]

So 6 AM or so Tuesday morning I scooped out some ashes and coals and carefully placed them in my ash bucket, a lovely 14.95 Lowes special, and placed the supposedly tight fitting lid on it. Whisked it outside and placed it on the three patio pavers I have staked up just for this purpose*.

Knowing some of the coals were still live, I left it sitting there overnight to this afternoon. Went out and dumped it and brought the bucket back in.

Looked out 3 hours later to see the wind blowing ash dust around. Wait. That's not ash dust, that's SMOKE. Crap. Go outside, check and sure enough, at least one ember must have still been live, and was enough with the wind fanning it to start a smokey little smolder where I dumped.

So back inside, grab the 2 gallon watering can, put it in the sink to fill, grab the poker and out to stir things up a bit and see how bad this is. Well, there it is! That oak plank I forgot about that is lying burried under the place where I dumped the ashes. with a nice big black hole in it, smoking away, and heat coming out from under it.

Back inside, grab the can, go outside (oh, 20+ degrees F, did I mention that?) , slowly sprinkle water around and listen for the hissing, looking for the spots the water does not freeze in seconds, hold my hand out feeling for heat, poke, pull and prod with the poker, rinse, refill, repeat this 3 times.

So now it seems to be out, I checked a few time and no warmth anywhere, I will check again after I post this.

Luckily, I did not actually see any neighbors watching me, but I can imagine them seeing me and saying to themselves, " what is that idiot up to THIS time?". They're used to saying that, a lot.

Moral: Never trust your ash bucket to smother the contents in only 24 hours.

( oh, and yes, I did lift the plank, flop it over and make sure I checked where it was and the underside)

*Well, re-purposed for that. It was easier than actually moving them to a better place to store them, you know.

 

[Renovation]

Hey Tom,

Thanks for the story. **** the neighbors if they can't take a joke. They'd probably think you're just a *really* obsessive gardener. :D

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Tom, please do not think this will happen only in 24 hours. This could also happen if you left those coals in the bucket for many days! Yes, one has to be very careful; don't play with fire.

 

[yooperdave]

now ain't that sumthin! remove the air and the coals last a long time! used to work at a window/door plant and a gut used sawdust soaked in linseed oil to sweep the floor. got done and he swept it into a cardboard box and then we all left for the weekend. nightshift boiler man was making his rounds when he found one wing of the plant starting to smoke up. removed the box into a snowbank and the thing still had embers in it on monday a.m.

 

[jotul8e2]

This has come up before, but it bears repeating. I personally have seen live coals in my ash can three days after emptying my ash pan into it. It is best to have two ash cans so you can let a full one sit for a week or so before dumping it.

This also is why trash trucks all over the country are set on fire regularly this time of year.

 

[DALE SR 3]

Another item is story to note is the fact the ash bucket came from LOWE's. That is warning enough

I bought a fireplace tool set from Lowe's and these tools were supposedly made for use in a fireplace application. Very soon after I starting burning my Montecito I was cleaning out the ashes and obviously I had some embers along for the ride on the shovel. It was about 4 am when my wife got woken up by a loud shout from me for help because my ash shovel burst into flames and the flames were crawling up the handle. The paint had burst into flames. While I held the shovel and door shut for the fireplace my wife doused the blazing tool with the water bottle we had nearby.

Fireplace tools that burst into flames when used in a fireplace, beware of Lowe's discount fireplace tools, or ash buckets you are lucky the bucket did not burst into flames while you were filling it inside the house.

 

[burleymike]

A few years ago the bottom of my old metal can rusted out so I used a plastic 5 gallon bucket. After filling it with ashes I would then dump 3 gallons of water in the bucket and mix it. This worked great for a several months that is until one super windy night I dumped the ashes in the bucket and forgot to add the water. I was sick that night and after I came in I told my wife I was heading to bed for a while.

I wake up to her telling my ash bucket is on fire. I look out the front window and there in the snow is a puddle of burning plastic with a metal handle in it.

 

[gibson]

My ash can is a metal 5 gallon driveway sealant drum. It gets dumped 3x per year usually in the snow. Funny, no snow ever accumulates on the ash can, I always thought it was magic!

 

[shawneyboy]

I use 2 medium metal trash cans, Fill one up, she can sit there while the other one gets filled up. When second gets filled, then first can get dumped. Note we are talking about 10 - 13 gallon trash cans so I have no doubt that it is cold before I dump it. It takes at least a month or more, to fill up the second, then the first is used on ice in the driveway. Rinse and repeat.