# Any Tricks for Burning Wet Brush Pile



## WestFork

Back in the old days, we'd light fire to a tire & throw the brush on top. We have some old trees that came down & we're trying to burn up the debris. It's a great wet time of year for burning, but it takes a long time to get the brush going. Anybody have any good environmentally acceptable tricks for getting a brush fire burning hot?


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## celticfalcon

buy one of those fire place logs where you just lite the end of the paper.


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## Big Dave

Diesel----I did not say that.


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## gilberte

Okay, this is just between you and me, don't want secrets like this gettin' out. Here's what I do: Let the brush pile dry out. That's right, I cut brush all summer, it sits all fall and winter, and I burn it in the spring.


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## jwal10

Yeah but it is raining here. I use the propane torch....James


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## foxtrapper

Trying to burn wet brush in the rain is just frustrating.

Any particular reason you cannot wait for it to dry out?


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## geo in mi

You might try a leaf blower, like a bellows.........

geo


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## Fire-Man

SkagitBrooms said:


> Back in the old days, we'd light fire to a tire & throw the brush on top. We have some old trees that came down & we're trying to burn up the debris. It's a great wet time of year for burning, but it takes a long time to get the brush going. Anybody have any good environmentally acceptable tricks for getting a brush fire burning hot?


I always use several mashed cardboard boxes and crumbled up news paper and some smaller pieces of dry wood if I got some. Shove all this under the pile as far as you can then lite-----as soon as all this gets to burning good, I crank up the leaf blower and blow the flames(not to close to the flames or to far away) towards the middle of the wet pile---It will get going if you put enough cardboard/paper/etc under it.


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## dkhern

petrolum products are your friend


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## OkieDavid

Brush burner attached to a propane tank. I try to burn during light rain so I don't have to worry about blowing embers and dry grass. I also make sure there is plenty of dead/seasoned wood on the bottom of the pile.


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## Ironbutt

I get used cooking oil from a local diner it burns really hot and is cheaper than diesel fuel and safer than burning tires. I pour a 5 gallon bucket at bottom of pile, ignite and as it burns take my leaf blower and fan the flames hotter. Ideally a breeze blowing into the pile helps push the flames


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## rambler

You need to make a hot spot that gets hot enough to cook out the water and start up some bigger pieces of wood to keep burning hot and keep cooking out more of the wood.

A dry bale of straw can do this, requires proper feeding of the wood to the hot spot, and putting in a dry piece of wood or 2 will help keep things going. A blower or fan at the right time can Move the heat and flame front In the right direction if you want to get that Advanced. It's an art form to keep the process going, but this way does meet the requirements of EPA type folk. It's kinda slow to get going, and need to keep feeding enough wet wood to the hot spot to keep drying it out without smothering the hotspot - balancing act.

Petroleum products, best is diesel fuel, can create a lot more heat a lot faster, if your EPA types don't get upset with that. The diesel will smoke bad because it doesn't get enough air 'naturally' burning it this way. A special burner - basically a furnace fuel nozzle that atomizes the diesel, and a blower to create enough airflow - will make a more EPA - friendly and no-smoke that will really do the job and do it properly.

There are also lp burning flame throwers to do the same job, similar to the diesel thrower.

Kinda the long and the short of it.

Paul


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## watcher

I second old cooking oil and a leaf blower. Or you could use old motor oil and a leaf blower but its not as PC.


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## pinfeather

I second the bale of straw idea. And the torch. This is how we burned a slash pile that burned literally all day - maybe 16 hours - last spring in the rain. The only things that were left was a pile of ash, a bit of one of the stumps and a basketball-sized black thing that turned out to be a chunk of unburned straw when we chopped it open with a shovel. Good stuff.


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## Country Lady

We have lots of pine straw around. I will sometimes bag up dry pine straw and save until we have smaller burn piles that might have gotten wet. Add the dry straw to the pile and just one match to dry pine straw and you have a blaze.


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## DaleK

Round bale of straw in a depression in the ground or dig a hole for it, cut it open and shake it out some. Pile the brush on top of it so it will fall inward as it burns. Then put another layer of straw over the top to keep the heat in and pour some diesel and/or used oil over the top. Let it soak in for a day if you can and if there's no rain in the forecast. Tires in the mix and burning at night will help too.


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## Molly Mckee

Do not use gas! Diesel maybe. Tarp part of the pile so it can dry.


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## Evons hubby

Sounds like the perfect opportunity to get rid of all that used motor oil you have accumulating in the shop.


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## cast iron

Around here if we didn't burn when the pile is still wet, or even in the rain sometimes, the piles would never get burnt. The window between 'to wet to burn' and the burn ban month(s) is very narrow and sometimes non existent.

As Rambler mentioned, starting small (sometimes very small) and progressively building up the fire is really key. Sometimes we will unstack a long standing pile and start a very small burn pile near it then feed material from the longstanding pile to build up the small pile. As counter intuitive as it might sound, the material on the top of a long standing pile is usually dryer than material in the middle or at the bottom of the pile.

We use cardboard as starter material and I have a propane weed burner with a 20lb. propane tank strapped to a hand-truck to get things started. Then use a leaf blower to provide some oxygen boost when needed. Both the weed burner and the blower are worth the cost if you do any kind of burning at all in the wetter climates.


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## WestFork

Wayne02 you know the reasons we burn wet piles. The burn bans shut us down every time things dry out.


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## anette

you could do like the lady a county over from us... she saw a snake, poured gas on it, lit it on fire.... the snake crawled into a brush pile... in the end she managed to burn a snake, a brush pile, and two houses

...im no snake lover, but that is a cruel way to kill anything


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## Copperhead

One year I piled brush. When I was done, I put a 12x12 tarp over the center. Had to wait 2 months to burn it. Some newspaper, cardboard and some whatever the kids were throwing away in the center where the tarp used to be and the whole thing went up like Chicago . . . in the middle of a rainstorm


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## Ross

Agree Anette, that was very cruel. Just get the fire started and going good as a small fire then it will dry the pile as it burns. We don't use anything except cardboard or leaves.


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## tinknal

Big Dave said:


> Diesel----I did not say that.


Liquid boy scout!


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## wannabechef

One tire and some gasoline...


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## cindy-e

gilberte said:


> Okay, this is just between you and me, don't want secrets like this gettin' out. Here's what I do: Let the brush pile dry out. That's right, I cut brush all summer, it sits all fall and winter, and I burn it in the spring.


If the OP means Skagit County WA... Rains from october to may pretty much every day. It isn't cold enough in the winter to freeze dry things. It might be in the 70s in June and July, but not every day, and that is not nearly warm enough for long enough to dry it all the way out when it is that waterlogged. I have logs in a barn that have been drying since we moved in in Oct. They had been sitting in that field all summer I would assume. It is still to wet and green to burn. I have clothes out on a line *under cover*. It has been there for 2 weeks. It's still not dry, and no the roof does not leak. I am going to give up and bring it in. People do dry wood and burn it here. I just have no idea how they do it. 

Can you tell I am over wet winter? LOL! 30 degrees this spring morning. sigh....


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## WestFork

Well this is about the mildest winters we've seen in WA in maybe a decade. Not too much rain, as usual. You need to get your wood in the spring & early summer. Get it in the woodshed by July 1 & it will dry out by October. Nothing will dry out around here it seems. 

We did get a huge fire going, using dry firewood then a propane torch. It took 3 hours to get a good fire going, then about 1 hour to burn a massive amount of brush. I really like the idea of tarping the pile. Might try that in the future with some old pcs. of plastic.



cindy-e said:


> If the OP means Skagit County WA... Rains from october to may pretty much every day. It isn't cold enough in the winter to freeze dry things. It might be in the 70s in June and July, but not every day, and that is not nearly warm enough for long enough to dry it all the way out when it is that waterlogged. I have logs in a barn that have been drying since we moved in in Oct. They had been sitting in that field all summer I would assume. It is still to wet and green to burn. I have clothes out on a line *under cover*. It has been there for 2 weeks. It's still not dry, and no the roof does not leak. I am going to give up and bring it in. People do dry wood and burn it here. I just have no idea how they do it.
> 
> Can you tell I am over wet winter? LOL! 30 degrees this spring morning. sigh....


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## joebill

Just a word for those who, like myself, sometimes use gasoline. The fumes tend to want to hug the ground and spread out when it's rainy out. My bil discovered this the hard and painfull way.

OTOH, if I use gasoline, I use an old spelunker's trick from 100 years ago. They would braid up a heavy wick of cloth, make a launcher by driving a nail with no head into the end of a broomstick. Then, hang the wick that was soaked in flammable liquid from the nail, light it and "cast" it into areas that they wanted to light up.

That's a method for lighting up something you want to burn from a distance, too....Joe


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## am1too

I build all my brush piles with little stuff on the bottom. This get good air and will burn easily even if wet. Small stuff dires pretty fast over a plie of cry leaves. If it isn't too awful wet usually a one match thing. I also like ever greens close to the starter fire.


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## cast iron

SkagitBrooms said:


> Well this is about the mildest winters we've seen in WA in maybe a decade. Not too much rain, as usual.


Yep, as much as I like the PNW, the frequent milk-toast winters we have are very annoying. The mosquito army is already here in our area and it's going to be ugly this year.


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## Bret

Just be safe. If you must use flamables be mindful of the wind. Even with no wind fumes, can travel before lit. Protect your eyebrows or you will have to explain to everyone everywhere you go for a while and you will count yourself lucky that you can explain it in person.


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## Double diamond

Get some dry pallets put them under the pile. Enough to get a good hot fire.


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## edcopp

Ignore it, nature will take care of it in a few years.


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## Bret

edcopp said:


> Ignore it, nature will take care of it in a few years.


I do do this with some. I call them rabbitats. Some piles just take up too much real estate.


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## jejogr

Although safety is very important (I once set a field on fire in March....very scarey!) I have also learned that many birds are beginning their nest in existing brush piles. It's better to burn them after July when all the birds have flown or better still, in the middle of winter when it's much safer with snow on the ground. I keep some brush piles out away from the house just for wildlife shelter.


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## DiggerDirect

In early spring when the piles are as big as their gonna get to be safe we tarp them, any old tarp will do doesn't have to cover whole thing or even be 100% water tight, or even use a new cheapo on sale Harbor freight $1.99 tarp (still cheaper than wasting a 1/2 gallon of gasoline or diesel). Then throw a couple good fairly heavy chunks/poles/ across the top. Come middle of winter the weight of the poles has settled the pile, and under tarp is dry, a coffee can of some used motor oil from servicing the vehicles and a dash of chainsaw gas in under the tarp to get er goin, burns up tarp & all but works a charm, rain snow or not. Even tho chainsaw gas insn't near as explosive as pure gas the fumes still creep some. Stand a distance up wind and toss a stick (tip dipped in the gas & lit) at the pile.


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