Even more ditch burning

Monday I did more ditch burning.  This time it was some of the ditch across the road.   I don't always burn this ditch, but after some years of grass buildup, getting rid of the grass is a good thing, as sometimes people toss cigarettes out of their cars as they drive by.  And less grass makes it easier to find and get rid of the garbage and bottles people toss into the ditch.

Since the fields next to this ditch also had years of grass build up, and thick dead grass, I took extra care and caution.  I used my lawnmower to mow a path between the ditch and the fields.  Much easier to prevent the spread of the fire into the fields.  I also mowed around the wooden power pole.

The wind was from the right direction and not too strong. The speed was 10-12 mph.  I started the burn late afternoon and went against the wind.  Still I was leery as the thick grass started to burn intensely.  So after a few minutes I put the fire out and quit.  I waited a few hours until 7 pm when the wind was less.  7 mph and dropping.  The burn went well initially.  I burnt against the wind and spread the fire along from south to north.  Once I spread the fire start to the north end I went back to check on the earlier part of the fire.  When I returned to the north end I discovered the power pole was on fire.  Wait a minute!  I had mowed a path around the pole before starting the fire.    Somehow the fire made its way through the cut area - the only place it had done so in the entire cut I had made - and reached the power pole.   The power pole was installed back in 2011.  Apparently it still has lots of creosote.  Apparently it barely took any fire to ignite the pole to be on fire. 

I slapped the fire on the pole with my gloved hands to no effect.  I had a 5 gallon bucket out there and I ran and got the bucket.  A creek is nearby and I got water.  Where I threw the water the fire stopped.  But the fire runs fast on creosote wood and was higher.  I got more water and threw it higher.  It stopped the fire there.  But the fire was still moving up fast.  Water again, but the fire had moved higher.

I ran home to get an extension ladder.  A woman driving by on the road, Peggy, stopped and asked if she could help.  Yes, can you hold the ladder as I climb the ladder with a bucket of water so the ladder doesn't slide sideways?  She held the ladder for me.  I tossed water high on the pole and put fire out.  But the fire was always one bucket ahead of me.    Eventually I was at the top of the ladder and a small amount of fire was near the top of the pole.  Then I got it idea of putting the ladder in the bed of her pickup and maybe that would be high enough for me to reach the top.

We had gotten the pickup parked and the ladder in the pickup when a fire truck arrived.  Instead of climbing way up there I let them handle the fire.  The fire reached the top of the pole as they debated how to put the fire out.  No water at the top due to the electrical wires.  Bad thing to do is to put water on live electrical wires.  They got their extension ladder out which was a little taller than my ladder.   One fire person and I held on to the ladder to hold it in place and another fire person climbed the ladder with a fire extinguisher.  This had foam to put out fires around electrical wires.  For the lead fire person this was the first time she had used / saw this foam in action.  The foam worked great and immediately put out the fire.  I didn't look up as he sprayed the foam as I didn't want to accidentally get some in my eyes.  Looking out and way I could see some foam mist floating in the air on high.

No power was lost.  I double checked my house and I saw I still had power to turn on my lights.  Still, the fire department wanted the electric company to check out the power pole.  We had to wait a little while for an electric person and bucket truck to arrive.  He did so before 9 pm.  He checked out the pole at the top and everything was fine.   This morning I rechecked the pole to make sure there was no smoke due to any smoldering because the foam didn't get it all.  But the foam did.

Whew.

This is a first for me.  Never had this happen to me before.   Good thing this was my last of my ditch burning this year.   In the future I will pour water around pole in addition to mowing the grass around it before starting a fire to burn this ditch.

I apologized several times to the fire department and the electric employee but they said they could see I had made precautions before starting the fire, but sometimes things happen.  And this was nothing compared to other calls they get when people burn things.

When it was all done my clothes were very wet.  Tossing water from a large bucket when standing on a tall ladder had some of the water bounce off the pole and back on me.

You can see where I had mowed around the power pole.

Yes, the pole was tall.   Due to the height and contrast, the photo didn't capture the purple color at the top of the pole due to the foam.

Some parts of the ditch had more snowberry bushes than grass.  And some parts of the ditch didn't burn.

One glove has a hole.  After initially trying to put out the fire with my gloves the one finger got a blister due to the heat.

The fire did a number on the fiberglass rake hand.  Today when using the rake to rake some small tree branches the rake came out of the handle.  Argh.  To later use the rake I wrapped the end of the handle tightly with wire. It worked.