dangers of a christmas tree

[WoodpileOCD]

HUGE amount of flammable surface area there. I remember doing the branch thing in the fireplace many years ago as well. Definitely gets the heart pumping.

 

[Jags]

Me neither.

In the lower right hand corner, hit the youtube link and it will take you there...

Man - that sucker went up faster than 50:1 two stroke mix.

 

[velvetfoot]

Nope. I just get a black rectangle for embeded youtube-no link seen. Don't know why.

 

[Jags]

Nope. I just get a black rectangle for embeded youtube-no link seen. Don't know why.

So you don't see the black bar at the bottom with the play button and then all the way to the right, a link for youtube?

 

[velvetfoot]

I will try to attach a screen capture:

 

[Adios Pantalones]

They feed them to goats near me. I gather a few and feed them into the kiln in the firing after Christmas.

 

[Jags]

I will try to attach a screen capture:

IE9 ?
get firefox.

 

[lukem]

IE9 ?
get firefox.

Work blocking youtube content?

 

[Stegman]

I lived that in junior high school. A friend of mine and I found an old orange Christmas tree in the woods and thought it would be cool to light it on fire. Big mistake. The thing went up even faster than the one in the video. The heat drove us quickly away, and it started a minor brush fire that the local fire department had to respond to. We were scared shitless.

 

[Boom Stick]

A well watered Christmas tree is pretty hard to set on fire . . . but stop watering it for a few days and it will go up pretty quickly . . . as you have discovered.

We cut our tree down about .5 miles away from house, left cut end in bucket of water for a few days until we were ready to bring in house, set tree up in same room as we have our insert and added 1 quart of water to it everyday in morning. When we removed tree from house it weighed about 75% less than when we got it and was bone dry..........Scary. Damn firehazard

 

[Thistle]

Another reason I only use small pieces of prunings from Juniper shrubs out front as fire starter.2-3 pieces mixed in with dead twigs,corn cobs,scrap from the shop & a couple good handfuls coarse shavings from the chainsaw mill.

 

[Flatbedford]

Scary! A friend of mine posted that video on Facebook.

 

[eclecticcottage]

I ask because twice now I've tried to light up a Christmas tree (balsam fir are the tree of choice here) and both times the tree caught for a second and then flared out.

We collected a few last year and tossed them next to our shed. Over the spring we were doing more clean up and tried to use them to start bonfires since we ended up with a couple good sized scrounges and decided not to bother stripping them for firewood. The needles burnt a bit, but it took a bit of doing to actually get much fire out of them.

 

[Halligan]

Check out this video showing a Christmas tree burning in a controlled test. The room is a total loss in one minute. By the time you saw the fire and even thought of getting a fire extinguisher it's too late. This is why the Fire Service encourages people to leave a burning building immediately. Fire growth can catch people off guard and they can become victims very easily.

 

[velvetfoot]

Work blocking youtube content?

No. IE8 at work, works.
IE9 at home, no work
updated Flash: no work

 

[clemsonfor]

Great demo, Mike. It's incredible how much potential energy is trapped in those pine needles, isn't it? I used to burn my tree too, but now we take it to the recycling center where it becomes mulch for our town......

Back in the day, many people died from Christmas tree fires (as mentioned above they were decorated with candles), kinda amazing you don't see it more often nowadays.

As for the tree drying out, I don't care how much you water that tree, after several weeks of being cut off the stump, it will eventually stop taking water out of the stand (most likely due to the resin plugging the cut end of the tree).

Thanks for sharing!

Wife and i watched a show on "european christmases" on public TV. We were at the farm and dont have cable there so its only networks, but we usually watch public tv Or ETV (educational T V) in this state as its called. They have cooking shows for her and wood working and home shows that i see as well as documentery stuff and the antique shows. ANYWAY this chrismas special about a month ago was about tradianal christmases throughout europe. Like in swiss alps, france and other places i dont remember. Anyway i think it was in the alps they showed them (with a fresh cut tree that the showed them cutting i think christmas eve) with candles on the tree as the family sat around it and then ate in a different room There was beautiful scenery on that show bot insome of the towns and in the alps.

 

[clemsonfor]

i break pieces off of mine after christmas to use as kindling, im talking 8" long pieces max. We took ours down this past weekend and it was 75% lighter. I watered it ever day or 2 and never let it go dry. We buy them the day they show up at the local grocery store, fresh cut them and put in a bucket for a week or so before it goes inthe house. The one im speaking of is in the same room as the stove and its DRY. It sits maybe 15 feet or so from the stove. Its all those 80F nights in that room that dry it out. The other one we have sits in the front room thats rarely heated and its still soft and suple, it still will burn like crazy though.

Still need to take it down in a week or so? Afterall we dont take our stuff down at least till the Epifinay, for you christians you should know what im talking about. I hate when even churches take their stuff down at newyears or before. After all the 12th day of christmas was just this past saturday, the 5th of Jan??? For you NON christians the epiphiny is a celebration with a big meal that celebrates when the wise men actually visited baby jesus. You did not think they got there december 26 did you? Ok enough bible stories for today.

 

[Flatbedford]

After all the 12th day of christmas was just this past saturday, the 5th of Jan??? For you NON christians the epiphiny is a celebration with a big meal that celebrates when the wise men actually visited baby jesus. You did not think they got there december 26 did you? Ok enough bible stories for today.

Thanks for that bit of information. My parents never sent me to Sunday school. Always nice to learn something new.

 

[clemsonfor]

i am by no means a perfect christian and dont know or forgot many things, but i do watch and have watched some history stuff that mentions christion celebrations and things through my years (actually saw something on this a month ago and my wife knew nothing about it). Its actually been a long long time since i have been in sunday school, and we recently (wife n i) joind a church. It had been since high school since i last went to church, but i am only 30 so were only talking 14 yrs or so, still a long time though.

But i just though i would mention that, those of you who are interested more i hope you will follow those who are not, i wish you were.

But yes what i said is true regarding christmas, you know the song ...on the 12th day of christmas... that refers to the epiphany, which occurs 12 days after the birth of baby jesus.

Sorry for the hijack but i felt it related just a bit. Also it helps to eplain why we dont RIP our stuff down christmas night or the next day.

 

[velvetfoot]

I just took out the tree. "Planted" it in what passes for a snow bank. Of course, it might hit 50 this week.

 

[Flatbedford]

I just took out the tree.

You gonna light it up?

 

[velvetfoot]

You gonna light it up?

You know, I contemplated starting a "tradition" by doing just that on the front lawn, but reconsidered after thnking of the cleanup of the charcoaly mess in the Spring.

 

[seige101]

No. IE8 at work, works.
IE9 at home, no work
updated Flash: no work

Switch to firefox, that will fix it

 

[tsquini]

In Newbury Ma the town collects the dried Christmas trees and have a bonfire. When you get a pile 20 ft high and 40 ft round it's very exciting to see. My avatar is a picture of it from last year.

 

[clemsonfor]

When in college at a big multi school gatherin of the southern schools of forestry, at Mississippi St, they had a bon fire, although no Christmas trees it was quite a fire. It was stacked log home style with hunks splits rounds of dead pine, all the scrap lumber they could find and then soaked with no less than 50 gallons of diesel fuel then set on fire. I kid you not you could feel the heat 2oo yds away, similar to a structure fire.