Ash disposal warning

[Bootlegger]

At the risk of making myself look foolish I'm going to tell you all this story in the hope that someone might avoid the same mistake.
For the last two years I've been dumping my metal ash bucket into my compost bin. The bin is always moist and the bucket cool. A few weeks ago I shoveled out the coals one evening and put the full bucket outside the back door. A couple hours later I dumped it in the compost and noticed a couple of red embers. No big deal, we just had some rain and pile was damp. The next morning there was no sign of trouble. At noon, when my wife left, no problem. When I got home at 4pm my forest was on fire, a ground fire in the leaves. The compost bin was ash and the tree next to it had a scorch mark almost ten feet high. Fortunately the wind blew it away from my house and workshop (only 10 feet away) and when I got home it had worked its way around to the other side of my house and was just about to get up under the deck. Lucky again I had a hose handy and my boys called 911 so the house was safe and the local fire crews plus my neighbors came and cleared a fire line to contain the burning leaves.

I now have a metal trash can outside, away from anything flammable, to store my ash in for the whole season. In retrospect what I did was an 11 on the stupid scale and I'm damned lucky the wind blew the right way that afternoon.

Let my idiocy be your warning.

 

[muncybob]

Live & learn......glad it all worked out OK.

 

[mayhem]

Dumb, yes. But you've learned from your mistake and obviously aren't going to do that again.

Everyone needs to remember that we're literally playing with fire hee...make a mistake and risk getting burned. Ashes are a great insulator for hot embers and they'll stay hot for a couple days or more.

When I shovel ashes and coals out of my stove, it goes into a 10 gallon steel trashcan with a lid thats held on by the handle, so it latches on pretty good. Hot bucket goes either in the basement in the middle of the cement floor or outside on the gravel patio area where it proceeds to radiate heat for about a day. Since ii don't generate 10 gallons of ash too frequently, I just leave it in the bucket till I need to empty out the stove again...usualyl once a week give or take, depending on ehat I;m burning and how cold it is.

 

[firefighterjake]

I know I may sound a bit like the Energizer Bunny because I keep saying this over and over and over . . . but I'll say it again . . . I've seen more fires started by the improper disposal of ashes/coals than any other fire cause related to woodstoves . . . with the possible exception of a chimney fire (but to tell the truth most of these fires are contained and don't do much damage . . . most of the time.)

Put your ash/coals in a covered metal pan outside away from all combustibles (including dead vegetation.) Treat the ash as if there is a live coal in the mess.
Leave it there for several days to preferably weeks before dumping . . . and when possible dumping in the snow is a good idea.

Thanks for sharing Bootlegger . . . lesson learned I'm guessing . . . glad it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

 

[Hinterlander]

My wife shovels the stove when she gets home from work a couple hours before me. I have an old-style "coal hod" I use to move ashes from the stove to the 30 gallon covered galvanized steel trash can on the patio. I always dump the coals in the steel can and re-cover it (away from the house). My wife is too lazy to dump the coals in the can, plus she doesn't like the ash flying in her face, so she set it next to the house (vinyl siding). Next day, I look out the door wall and find my vinyl siding buckled and melted. We all make those kinds of mistakes - once.

 

[basswidow]

When I dump my ashes, I wait days, but even then, I pour a 5 gl bucket of water on them and stir it around.

Thanks for the warning - you got lucky.

 

[burntime]

I either metal can them or throw them on the snow in the garden. My neighbor down the road dumped hot ash in his plastic wheelbarrow...not wanting the wind to blow it around he put it in his detached garage out of the wind. Yep, and he is not a dumb guy. Just a lot of stupid that day and it cost him a garage. Believe it or not insurance picked up the garage.

 

[loon]

bootlegger, this just happend here yesterday...

my wife who just had an operation a few weeks ago has been home and figured she finally felt well enough to deal with the stove WHICH is my job..
anyways she thought there was too much ash in the stove and put some of it in the ash can i keep beside the stove, which then go's directly out to the steel bin with lid out back.

well that little can ended up on the front porch HOT!! :shut: got home from work and had that quizzy feeling in my gut when i found out what happend.. sh!t didnt hit the fan at all, but sure did fill her in what i do with the ashes and this will not happen again ;-)

this is 20 mins ago and it snowed all day..

Terry

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Bootlegger, you are to be commended for posting this as most folks probably would not. This should be a wake-up call for everyone! Just because it is ashes, doesn't mean it isn't hot! Again, thanks for posting this.

 

[rottiman]

Last year we had a ice storm. Went down to where I keep my ashes in a metal garbage can. Threw some ashes on the icy drivway and they were sizziling when they hit the ice. amazing part is that they had been in that can with a lid on it for a week and a half. Go figure........................................

 

[partybob99]

If the ash is inside an air tight container, wouldnt they burn out in just a few hours? It almost seems hard to believe ashes still being hot after a week! Perhaps the key is having an AIR-TIGHT container as the lack of oxygen would put them out. Agree?

 

[Dune]

If the ash is inside an air tight container, wouldnt they burn out in just a few hours? It almost seems hard to believe ashes still being hot after a week! Perhaps the key is having an AIR-TIGHT container as the lack of oxygen would put them out. Agree?

Sure, if it was truly airtight, they would eventualy go out, but maybe not in a couple hours. First all the air in the container must be consumed, and a coal buriied in ash isn't using much air. I use a thirty gallon galvanized metal can also, otherwise known as an ash can.
Being as lazy as I am, I carry the can right upto the stove, and shovel the ashes into it, then right outside with it.

It gets partly emptied months after the last fill. I always keep a half full can of ash for my work.

Backwoods Savage took the words right out of my mouth.

Kudos to you Bootlegger for telling your story despite your embarassment.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

If the ash is inside an air tight container, wouldnt they burn out in just a few hours? It almost seems hard to believe ashes still being hot after a week! Perhaps the key is having an AIR-TIGHT container as the lack of oxygen would put them out. Agree?

Not hard to believe at all. Coals in ashes can stay coals for a super long time.

 

[willworkforwood]

Well Bootlegger, I guess you can feel fortunate not to have made the first page of CNN :bug:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-527434?hpt=Sbin

 

[westkywood]

I burned a field next door by dumping 4 day old ashes. I use a metal bucket ( with a lid ) to dump my ashes in. It fills up in about a week. This year I built a concrete block enclosure to dump my bucket in.

 

[cptoneleg]

I burned a field next door by dumping 4 day old ashes. I use a metal bucket ( with a lid ) to dump my ashes in. It fills up in about a week. This year I built a concrete block enclosure to dump my bucket in.

I did same thing 1st year burnig walked out in the woods dumped 4-5 day bucket of ashes looked out an hour later fought fire for 6 hrs. Scared the heck out of me, wont happen again.

 

[yooperdave]

both myself and a guy that lives at the end of the street put our ashes on the road...sounds dumb but they are excellent for traction. i live on a corner and he lives at a stop sign that is a hill. well, i haven't had any cars in the ditch on the corner (except a high school kid that had "brake problems") and no has had to back down from the stop sign to get a rolling start. but, yeah, there always seems to be coals in there.

 

[bboulier]

Thanks for your advice. Disposal of ashes is an important issue for wood burners.

 

[Danno77]

I wonder how many cords of wood do you have to burn to fill a standard sized galvanized garbage can with ashes... This could be a fun experiment. someone try to figure it out. Added bonus is that you know your ashes won't be starting any fires anytime soon.

anyway, rarely do I throw out any coals. just ashes if I can. they tend not do cause problems that way, too.

Glad to hear no major harm was done. thanks for the safety reminder.

 

[modo]

My situation was not life threatening, but was definately a wake up call. I had my ash bucket full for 3 days and needed to dump it to clean out. Both the bottom and sides of the bucket were cool, so I thought no biggie, I will empty it on my burn pile about 150 yards south of my house. This was at 7 a.m. I was gone for the day and came back home about 4, looked my burn pile over (sticks, twigs, etc. from the fall in the yard) and it wasn't even smoking. Came back out about 2 hrs. later and it was burning like mad.

 

[burntime]

I wonder how many cords of wood do you have to burn to fill a standard sized galvanized garbage can with ashes... This could be a fun experiment. someone try to figure it out. Added bonus is that you know your ashes won't be starting any fires anytime soon.

anyway, rarely do I throw out any coals. just ashes if I can. they tend not do cause problems that way, too.

Glad to hear no major harm was done. thanks for the safety reminder.

It depends on the wood and how well seasoned. I can tell you 6 .5 cord of mixed hardwood will fill a garbage can about 7/8's when I used the old smoke dragon. With the newer stoves and better seasoned wood I bet it is more like 8-10

 

[colebrookman]

Besides the obvious fire danger, putting wood ashes in a compost pile is overkill. A little goes a long way in the garden and normally you would not need to apply it yearly. Better to store separately and use as needed. Be safe.
Ed

 

[PunKid8888]

Well time to share my wake up call today.

I have read through these story many of times but never thought they applied to me. I only burn at night and on the weekends and only shovel out the ash after a 10hr day of work. All last year I never reloaded the stove in the morning, so when I shoveled the ash out after work its was ice cold. This year I have been reloading a different time in the night and this resulted today (even after a 10hr work day) that when I was shoveling the ash I saw a few very small faint coals, I even checked the temp with my hand and felt nothing above the ash. I thought no big deal, well a few hours later (luckily I was home) I was watching tv and smelled some smoke. I figured it was a back puff or something. Nope my ash bucket was smoldering (I don't have a seal lid style, will be buying one tomorrow) I then touched the sides and was amazed it was hot to the touch. luckily I was around and it was at least on the hearth. Its now sitting outside in the snow, with a couple shovel fulls of snow in it. I to have been guilty of putting the ashed in my compost pile, although I always waited a few days.

But after today and reading through some of these posts I will be changing my routine and buckets to sealed.

 

[Captain Hornet]

Forty years ago I started burning in a old wood stove when we moved to the country. I emptied the ashes like always did and put the metal can in the back of my old pickup truck. Next day I went to town and dropped the trash and my old ashes into the roadside dumper. Went into town to the hardware store and then started back home. Get up to the dumper and found the road blocked by the Sheriff while the local volunteer fire dept was putting out the fire in the dumper. The officer told me that some low life had set fire to the dumper. Who could have done such a dumb thing?? I don't know but I drove home and vowed to be more careful in the future. David

 

[Boozie]

So, what does one do with their ashes. I've only had my insert a few weeks. I have some in a metal can (with a lid) sitting out on the concrete patio and I vacuumed some out with an ash vacuum I recently purchased. Not supposed to put the vacuum outside, so it's sitting on the metal hearth in front of my fireplace. Eventually, metal cans will get full. What do you do with the ashes then? (safely)