Runaway grassfire -part II

[Mobuck]

Around 9PM last evening, I heard a vehicle pull into the driveway followed by pounding on my back door. I was busy doing employee management tasks but jumped up to see who was on the back porch. Turned out to be my new neighbor and before I'd even opened the door, he was yelling that there was a grassfire and it had jumped the fence line. After my wildfire 11/2, this announcement was akin to a solid face slap. Grouch Attack had already gone to bed so I ran n and awakened her before going down stairs to get into work clothes and coat.
By the time I got dressed, we could see the glow 1/2 mile away. We took a look and the neighbor asked if we should call the FD but my spur of the moment assessment indicated we could handle it. I returned to the house for safety goggles, better gloves, and my leaf blower. (It would have been better to have taken 5 minutes to load this tool before leaving than to waste 15 minutes returning for it BTW). That 15 minute delay allowed the fire to gain another acre on us.
I jumped right into the fight and by the time neighbor returned with his bigger leaf blower and a couple of rakes, I had most of the fire on my property fully under control other than a couple of small spots. The fire on the neighbor's side was still gaining ground and had reached a weedy, brushy ditch line that led directly to 60 acres of dense timber. I found a spot where cattle had crossed the ditch and decided this was the spot to make our stand. We got the neighbor's backpack blower going and his wife got a rake and we beat the fire back on itself at the cattle path. There was quite a bit of fire still blazing but the pasture grazed off short gave us time to push it back and get it under control. An hour or less from the initial knock on my door and we could stop for a breather.
Not terrible but still not the expected evening's activities. Guesstimate of 4-5 acres of pasture and hay field scorched but will re-grow, maybe a few wood fenceposts damaged, steel posts lost some paint, and neighbor's Father in Law (he started the fire while burning an old brushpile) was seriously upset. When the older guy showed up, I'd told Grouch Attack to stay with him just in case he had a medical issue-turned out a good idea. He had no business being anywhere near the fire and the last thing we needed was a stroke or heart attack to deal with 3/4 of a mile from any access other than ATV.
ANYHOO, it was a challenge. I'd been concerned about how (or even IF) I could face the fire/flames after getting badly singed a few months back. Question answered-YES.

 

[Hawk-in-Wi]

glad it all work out ok ,

my leaf blower ,,, never would have thought of using one of those

 

[turd]

Glad you were there because you knew how to fight it. I never would have thought of a leaf blower.

 

[AJGUNNER]

I generally use the leaf blower to get a burn pile to grow and keep the fire going.

 

[Mobuck]

Leaf blower is a primary tool in controlled burning AND fighting grass fires. I'm not strong enough to handle one of the big backpack blowers but they're really worth the weight.
My ECHO blower melted in my hands while fighting the wildfire here but I've rounded up enough parts to rebuild it. The one I used last night is a Poulan 25CC and it's OK but I don't think it has the longevity of the ECHO.

 

[contender]

Whew! Another fire. I bet your pucker factor was high!

 

[gramps]

Good job Mobuck! Our FD has just recently started using a leaf blower. I use a backpack sprayer, and have used it to put out a 5 acre grass fire. It was sooo much fun calling into dispatch to say the fire was out and I had only used 3 gallons of water! I had to repeat my message, cause our brush truck has 270 gallons, and they didn’t believe me at first. Lol Amazing how well the leaf blowers work! Use the backpack sprayer to mop up hot spots and you are gold!!!
gramps

 

[Dave P.]

Good job Mobuck! Our FD has just recently started using a leaf blower. I use a backpack sprayer, and have used it to put out a 5 acre grass fire. It was sooo much fun calling into dispatch to say the fire was out and I had only used 3 gallons of water! I had to repeat my message, cause our brush truck has 270 gallons, and they didn’t believe me at first. Lol Amazing how well the leaf blowers work! Use the backpack sprayer to mop up hot spots and you are gold!!!
gramps

Did you ever get to use the old 5 gallon "Indian pumps ", spent lots of time in the summer chasing grass fires with a broom when my father
was on the fire department. I swear every train that went by managed to start fires. Get as close as you could grab a pump and broom,
good exercise on a hot summer day!

 

[Mobuck]

The big Stihl backpack blower that neighbor showed up with has a 'mister'(for applying chemicals to shrubbery and such) on top but he didn't have any water in it (emptied for winter). I'd like to see how that works. Seems like a great deal if you can tote it.
We've used backpack and ATV mounted sprayers and they have a place in the toolkit but they're much less mobile and more tedious to use. I can run 30-45 minutes on a tank of gas while the sprayers run dry in much less time.

 

[gjgalligan]

Why would you NOT call the FD???
What if you had fell and broke your leg or had a heart attack? You might have become a crispy critter!

 

[blume357]

I wondered about that too... but back when I was young I remember it was not unusual for the woods on our farm to catch on fire because of the rail road track that went through.. .and about once a year one of the wheels on a car would lock up.... neighbors would show up and cut a green pine branch or small tree and use that to beat the fire down and back... pine woods with pine straw for a base.... I've never thought of using a back pack blower on a grass fire...

 

[Mobuck]

"Why would you NOT call the FD???"
OK, I'll try to be nice.
#1: Response time here is 30-90 minutes depending on where the volunteer FD people are scattered (often the local party spots or sports fields). I had the fire controlled in 15-20 minutes.
#2: Due to the location of this fire, the majority of the FD equipment couldn't even get there and when they did, it would cause more damage to the field than the fire.
#3: The old guy who let the fire get out of control was already close to having a medical issue so immediate action was going to help settle him down.
#4: This neighbor responded to my fire IMMEDIATELY and w/o reservation.
#5: Most of us out here in the sticks don't follow the "Call 911 and go suck your thumb in a dark closet" plan.
#6: There have been and still are 'issues' with the local FD feeling their Cheerios and exceeding the boundaries of authority.
#7: What I saw during the FD response to the wildfire here 11/2 leads me to believe they are ineffective in controlling grass fires.
Like I said, I'm trying to be nice.

 

[caryc]

Glad to hear that you got it under control. I live on 5 acres here in the Lakeview Mountains and have two tractors to keep a fire break on my property. I spent over two hours mowing just yesterday.

One thing I don't understand is how you use a leaf blower to put out a brush fire. Is it like blowing out a match? I don't even have a leaf blower. You don't want to get close to a fire line here. Most of the fires we have are controlled by aircraft.

 

[gjgalligan]

I WAS being nice when I asked.
And I will continue to be nice now.
As a former volunteer fireman (13 yrs) I always had the safety of humans as the first concern.
Maybe your FD operates different then ours did, at the call out the first guy would pull the truck and the rest would respond to the scene.
I would think anybody would want to get the team started as they can always be cancelled if you get it out before they get there. Lives could depend on it.

 

[blume357]

I understand your points gigaligan but have to agree with Mobucks answers... especially about the damage that would be done... as far as I can tell no one was in danger really. I live in a city where the emergency response time is fast... and I have the upmost respect for the first responders... especially after my wife called 911 when I was having the big one... Fire Dept beat the ambulance to my house which arrived in 2 minutes...

Out in the country is a bit different.

But, here is a story from about 20 years ago... same location... snow storm and folks were sledding down the road in front of our house... a lady lost control on her sled went through the woods ...went air born over a big culvert landing on a drainage pipe that suspends over the culvert and then fell in the bottom of the ditch... it took our local 1st responders over 3 hours to extract her.... I was down there with her and her husband and had her covered with a sub zero sleeping bag as she lay in the run off from the melting snow... she turned so white from hypothermia and possible internal bleeding that I whimped out and decided I was not going to be down there with her and her husband when she died. (everyone else including the first responders waiting for the extraction team to show up were up the hill standing around) they finally did pull her out and she did live.

 

[caryc]

I WAS being nice when I asked.
And I will continue to be nice now.
As a former volunteer fireman (13 yrs) I always had the safety of humans as the first concern.
Maybe your FD operates different then ours did, at the call out the first guy would pull the truck and the rest would respond to the scene.
I would think anybody would want to get the team started as they can always be cancelled if you get it out before they get there. Lives could depend on it.

Please don't misunderstand me. I have the utmost respect for all first responders. But, in the mountains or brush country here, there are not even roads to get to fires. The ground FD is always standing by and trying to protect structures but sometimes they are pretty much helpless and really need the air support to fight the main fire. By the way, I used to be a member of the volunteer fire department here in my younger days.

 

[Ride1949]

You're back !!!!

 

[caryc]

You're back !!!!

I decided to try to stay out of threads that will get me into big arguments. I'll try to stay on the neutral side, if that's possible.

 

[Dummy]

Leaf blower vs a wet tow sack ...... we've come a long way or not. Hate the noise.
Then again it will ignite your charcoal.

 

[caryc]

Had a fire here in the Lakeview Mountains the other day. It was on the other side of the mountain range and headed my way. It burned for like a day and a half. The fire bombers got on it pretty fast. There were three two engine bombers working on it. It started like about 10 AM and by evening the big smoke plume was gone. Luckily, I live maybe a 15 minute drive from the small airport where they keep those bombers. I didn't even know about the fire until I heard those bombers flying over my place. Thank God for those guys. My thanks to the ground crews also but, most of the time they are pretty much helpless without those planes.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Cary,
From my understanding the planes drop the Retardent to help retain the fire and allow the ground crews to build fire lines. Water on large fires doesn't do much good it just turns in to steam.
Cal Fire does not allow single engine aircraft to fight fires.

What airport do you live near?? Cal Fire has a base at Nevada County Airport along with others

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CALIFORNIA-WILDFIRE/AIRCRAFT/bdwpkzmyyvm/Tankers don't usually drop retardant directly on the fire itself. Instead, they let it go in front of a fire, directing its course or slowing its advance, and giving ground crews a chance to control or extinguish it. Retardant can also be released to protect homes or important sites and to keep access roads open.

Cal Fire flys many types of planes, this is the one you probably saw.
It is a modified Navy S-2

The Broncos are used for control and lead in for the bigger planes

 

[caryc]

Cary,
From my understanding the planes drop the Retardent to help retain the fire and allow the ground crews to build fire lines. Water on large fires doesn't do much good it just turns in to steam.
Cal Fire does not allow single engine aircraft to fight fires.

What airport do you live near?? Cal Fire has a base at Nevada County Airport along with others

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CALIFORNIA-WILDFIRE/AIRCRAFT/bdwpkzmyyvm/Tankers don't usually drop retardant directly on the fire itself. Instead, they let it go in front of a fire, directing its course or slowing its advance, and giving ground crews a chance to control or extinguish it. Retardant can also be released to protect homes or important sites and to keep access roads open.

Cal Fire flys many types of planes, this is the one you probably saw.
It is a modified Navy S-2

The Broncos are used for control and lead in for the bigger planes

I think they were the S2's. The airport is the Hemet Ryan airport in Hemet California. Many years ago they used to use the TBF's single engine torpedo bombers. They were really something to watch in action. The hills up here are mainly boulder strewn places. No way to get any vehicles or dozers or any other fire fighting equipment up there. I've been through many fires up here in 50 some years. They don't usually put fire fighters on foot up above those fire lines with the fires racing up hill from from the winds created by the fires. That's where the planes come in. The ground crews will fight like heck to save any homes in danger. I used to work at Hemet Ryan airport in an Aircraft Job shop there. We always knew exactly when there was a fire somewhere when we heard those TBF engines firing up. They rattled the heck out of our shop windows. They made one heck of a racket.

 

[Paul B]

"We always knew exactly when there was a fire somewhere when we heard those TBF engines firing up. They rattled the heck out of our shop windows. They made one heck of a racket."

When I lived in Winnemucca Nevada they used to spray the town just before the Fourth of July weekend to kill the mosquitoes and gnats. I moved there in 1979 and in late June 1980 was working the midnight shift at the airport. When the sun came up here was this TBM parked at the airport. The TBM is a TBF made by a different company. IIRC, the TBF is Grumman and the TBM General Motors. Same plane, different designation but damned if I know why? I remember him firing it up and was it LOUD! Took him almost a week to complete spraying the town and down along the Humbolt River. I was home on my days off when he fired that thing up and you could hear it taking off. My home at the time was seven miles from the airport. We were blessed with thatnoisemaker for every late June for three years when they changed the company that did the spraying. The rest of the time an AgCat was used. I couldn't believe I missed that TBM but I did. I always liked the sound of those old warbirds. However, if you want loud, try a B25 on for size. Way to cool to never have heard one. I got to hear the one used in the Enola Gay movie.
Paul B.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Paul The Navy designation code has the manufacture in it.
Here are a few Yea it is confusing. Also the model number was also included. Like F4U-4
TBF= Torpedo Bomber, Grumman
TBM= Torpedo Bomber, General Motors.
SNJ= Scout Trainer, North American
F4F = Fighter, Gruman
FM2 = Fighter, General Motors (same as F4F)
F4U =Fighter, Chance Vought
PBY = Patrol Bomber, Consolidated
N3N= Trainer, Navy
PBJ = Patrol Bomber, North American (B-25)

 

[caryc]

Jim, My boss when I worked in that aircraft job shop at the airport used to call those S2's snoopy airplanes. I can't remember why but, now as I recall, they were painted completely yellow. The double engine planes I saw the other day were red and white. But, they look to be longer and not as squat looking as the S2's so, I really don't know what they were. I was just glad they were there.