Ash Disposal Near Mishap

[Haston]

I just had the most bizarre experience emptying my 10 ga. ash can. It is currently 23 degrees outside and has not been above 30 for a couple of days. The last time I scooped ash out of my wood insert was yesterday morning. When I overturned my ash back back in the woods an hour ago, 36 hours after cleaning the insert, out spilled dozens and dozens of red hot coals. It is very windy and the ground where i dumped has a lot of frozen leaves. They immediately started smoldering. I
ran back to the house and shuttled nearly 30 gallons of water to put out the smoldering mass of ash, leaves, and coals. Something like this has never happened to me before. I never would have expected to have live coals after that long in the ash can. I may go back up the back hill one more time before bed to make sure everything is still O.K. I feel both lucky and dumb. H.

 

[JustWood]

You'd be surprised what happens in the ash can when no one is looking! :coolhmm:

 

[begreen]

Ash is a pretty effective insulator. Good that you were alert.

 

[rumme]

Heres what I do

go to any hardware store and for $10..purchase a glavanized steel trashcan with lid. Use that to emtpy all your ash into...and then you can use that ash for your garden, flower beds at a later date.

 

[LLigetfa]

With two feet of snow covering my compost pile, I can safely dump my ashes there and often see hot coals melt some of the snow.

 

[karl]

Yeah they glow that long. I couldn't get my car up the driveway the other night. So, I took my ash bucket and tossed two rows of ash down the driveway to help clear it off. It looked like Back To The Future, only instead of a Delorean it was a black BMW.

 

[jadm]

Just a few days ago I heard a story about someone who emptied her ashes into her compost pile, after they had been sitting for days outside in a can in cold weather, and ended up with no house due to fire the coals in her ashes started in the compost pile..... :ahhh:

 

[firefighterjake]

Since we have close to 2 feet of snow I'm not too worried about dumping out my ashes this time of year . . . but I routinely keep my ashes in a covered metal pail for several days before doing so anyways.

 

[Corey]

Glad you caught everything in time. It always amazes me just how long ashes can live. I'm really beginning to think the best ash storage may be a wide / shallow tray type set-up. At least that way the ashes would have good exposure to the air and should burn out quickly.

 

[Haston]

By the way, in my case, I do use a galvanized lidded trashcan, stored outdoors. The really weird part is that most of the glowing coals appeared to have come from the middle of the can-- meaning they sat much longer sat longer than 36 hours sicne my last feeding of the bucket. I have almost six years of woodburning under my belt and have never experienced this before. Very strange. Anyway, I envision digging a pit for next year's disposal-- and take more care before spreading ash on the lawn and in the garden beds. Thanks for the input, as always. H.

 

[Jags]

So what your saying is: your ash can gets a 36 hour burn time! Don't let the stove mfg's get word of this. ;-)

 

[pen]

I feel your pain (or stupidity perhaps)

Last year in May i went to clean out my stove that hadn't been run in over 2 days. There weren't many ashes and I had already cleaned my big ash bin so I just figured I'd vacuum them up. Well, I suppose there must have been some warm straggler in there as while looking in the stove I began to smell something and heard the cat flounder her large carcass up the cellar stairs. As I looked behind me the shop vac was producing a magnificent 6-10 foot fireball from the exhaust

talk about a kodak moment that almost earned me a Darwin Award.

pen

 

[EddyKilowatt]

There isn't much oxygen in the center of a filled ash can, but there isn't much heat loss, either. Hot coals can stay in a state of 'suspended animation'... burning very very slowly, staying hot, drawing a tiny trickle of air in through the porus ash blanket. Similar situation to what old-timers refer to as 'banking the fire' in a coal boiler.

Also goes to show that the more you can insulate your firebox, the slower your fire loses heat through its walls, and the slower you can (theoretically) burn.

Eddy

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I just had the most bizarre experience emptying my 10 ga. ash can. It is currently 23 degrees outside and has not been above 30 for a couple of days. The last time I scooped ash out of my wood insert was yesterday morning. When I overturned my ash back back in the woods an hour ago, 36 hours after cleaning the insert, out spilled dozens and dozens of red hot coals. It is very windy and the ground where i dumped has a lot of frozen leaves. They immediately started smoldering. I
ran back to the house and shuttled nearly 30 gallons of water to put out the smoldering mass of ash, leaves, and coals. Something like this has never happened to me before. I never would have expected to have live coals after that long in the ash can. I may go back up the back hill one more time before bed to make sure everything is still O.K. I feel both lucky and dumb. H.

Haston, or anybody else. Instead of hauling water you may have been able to control that fire very simply by just using your feet! Not to smother the fire, but rake the leaves in towards the fire. You can do the same thing with a grass fire. Use a rake, shovel, old broom, etc. and just go along the edge and rake towards the fire and you can put it out quite fast.

I think perhaps fireman Jake might back this up.

 

[LeonMSPT]

Quite the combustion blower... likely on one or two things besides gunpowder more flammable than dust.

Glad it turned out okay.

I feel your pain (or stupidity perhaps)

Last year in May i went to clean out my stove that hadn't been run in over 2 days. There weren't many ashes and I had already cleaned my big ash bin so I just figured I'd vacuum them up. Well, I suppose there must have been some warm straggler in there as while looking in the stove I began to smell something and heard the cat flounder her large carcass up the cellar stairs. As I looked behind me the shop vac was producing a magnificent 6-10 foot fireball from the exhaust

talk about a kodak moment that almost earned me a Darwin Award.

pen

 

[Chief Ryan]

I dumped a bucket of ash in my flower beds that was outside for 2 days and it was in the 20's during the day and teens to single digit at night and still had small red coals come out. They say in an oil burner that 1/8" of soot is worth 1" of insulation. Ash appears to be a very good insulator.

 

[ashpanannie]

I wish someone would invent an ash receptacle that would slide under a raised floor in a custom designed outdoor doghouse.

 

[firefighterjake]

I just had the most bizarre experience emptying my 10 ga. ash can. It is currently 23 degrees outside and has not been above 30 for a couple of days. The last time I scooped ash out of my wood insert was yesterday morning. When I overturned my ash back back in the woods an hour ago, 36 hours after cleaning the insert, out spilled dozens and dozens of red hot coals. It is very windy and the ground where i dumped has a lot of frozen leaves. They immediately started smoldering. I
ran back to the house and shuttled nearly 30 gallons of water to put out the smoldering mass of ash, leaves, and coals. Something like this has never happened to me before. I never would have expected to have live coals after that long in the ash can. I may go back up the back hill one more time before bed to make sure everything is still O.K. I feel both lucky and dumb. H.

Haston, or anybody else. Instead of hauling water you may have been able to control that fire very simply by just using your feet! Not to smother the fire, but rake the leaves in towards the fire. You can do the same thing with a grass fire. Use a rake, shovel, old broom, etc. and just go along the edge and rake towards the fire and you can put it out quite fast.

I think perhaps fireman Jake might back this up.

Either way would work . . . the most important thing is to make sure the fire doesn't get started again though . . . when a person isn't home.

Just recently a family in a rental lost the home and possessions . . . the guy said he has always been very careful about disposing of the ashes . . . but this one time he put the ashes in a plastic tote and left them inside the home (as opposed to immediately dumping them outside) since he didn't see any coals . . . went out for a snowmobile ride with the kids . . . it wasn't until he stopped for a break that he realized he had missed several calls which had been made to his cell phone letting him know the house was on fire.

For the record . . . Firefighterjake does not recommend paper bags, cardboard boxes, plastic bags, plastic totes, plastic pails or any container other than a metal container (preferably covered) to dispose of ashes . . . FFJake also suggests treating all ash as if there is a hot coal just lurking there ready to burn down your house so take the ash outside (not on the porch, wooden deck, garage, etc.), let it cool and dispose properly (for me that means dumping it in the snow or in the soil in my garden).

 

[Ken45]

For the record . . . Firefighterjake does not recommend paper bags, cardboard boxes, plastic bags, plastic totes, plastic pails or any container other than a metal container (preferably covered) to dispose of ashes . . .

SITTING ON A NON COMBUSTIBLE SURFACE (such as concrete).

Someone posted where they found a charred hole almost burned through the wood porch from a can that had been sitting there for a week.

Also, while dumpsters are "covered metal containers", they are not safe disposal locations. Responding to a dumpster fire is not a way to make friends with your local firefighters.

Ken

 

[BrotherBart]

Sitting the bucket on the snow ain't all it's cracked up to be either.

 

[crazy_dan]

since we burn our trash here I shovel the stove in to a coal hod then I take it strait away out to the burning barrel, then I dump my trash for the day on the coals and let it burn. Never had a problem doing it this way.

 

[firefighterjake]

For the record . . . Firefighterjake does not recommend paper bags, cardboard boxes, plastic bags, plastic totes, plastic pails or any container other than a metal container (preferably covered) to dispose of ashes . . .

SITTING ON A NON COMBUSTIBLE SURFACE (such as concrete).

Someone posted where they found a charred hole almost burned through the wood porch from a can that had been sitting there for a week.

Also, while dumpsters are "covered metal containers", they are not safe disposal locations. Responding to a dumpster fire is not a way to make friends with your local firefighters.

Ken

+1 on the addition of the non-combustible surface . . . thanks for the addition Ken45.

+1 on the dumpster fire . . . a better way to make friends with us is to bring cookies to the fire station . . . I like oatmeal raisin by the way.

 

[begreen]

Sitting the bucket on the snow ain't all it's cracked up to be either.

Thanks for posting that great shot again. It's a classic.