Go BottomUsing leafblower to help burn brush
 | BillMullens
Join Date: Jun 2000 Posts: 649 Central West Virginia 
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2003-11-20 69184
A local contractor told me that he frequently used a leafblower to accelerate brush pile fires. I've never heard or seen it before, anybody try it?
Bill
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 | b8fish
Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 39 Rochester, NY area 
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2003-11-20 69185
Yep--works great, especially to get one going again after initial burn out or the next morning. ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada 
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2003-11-20 69186
Bill, this is indeed a common, and possibly dangerous, practice. If not done carefully it can cause burning bits of leaf to become airborne, if you don't notice them and they start a fire nearby it can lead to a big problem.
A safer way to do it is to lay a small steel pipe down and pile the leaves over one end, then start the fire and using the blower from a safe distance introduce a little air into the center of the pile, usually the pipe will draw more than enough air into the fire all by itself. This little extra bit of air is enough to turn a smoldering pile into a hot, clean fire VERY quickly. It also helps to make a very small fire out of all your dead twigs first, then add leaves into it, gradually making the fire bigger.
Anytime you are burning outside it is a good idea to have a few "just in case" things around, a shovel, rake and hose at a minimum. A cell phone is also a good idea.
After the fire spreads is NOT the time to go looking for help or tools.
Best of luck. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2003-11-21 69229
I've always thought the pipe idea should work very well. Haven't tried it because around here the landfills are near and there's no tippage fees. We just store everybody's collection of brush and burn it in January. Besides, the permits and fire wardens are required for many burns anyway.
The permits and marshals are almost painless. The marshals are us on the fire crew and for anything sizable we'd likely bring along our pumper since we have to invent reasons to exercise it enough anyway. Still a lot of people don't bother since burning your brush is something that's always been done around here. It might be good to check with your township though 'cause there might be crew and equipment available for free. Besides, nobody would want to live in the same township with us if we had to turn out to fight a wild fire because somebody didn't call us and let a burn get away from them. ....
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| osheen
Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 12 sw washington
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2003-11-28 69889
I used my leaf blower and it worked great. The pile was still pretty green and wet and if it wasn't for the blower, I wouldn't have gotten the pile to take off. The area was pretty wet so there was no fire danger. I was trying to get another pile going with no luck, even after "accidentally" spilling a bunch of diesel and used oil on it. The neighbor brought over a weed burning torch connected to a 5 gal propane tank with a "turbo blast" lever that makes an enormous amount of heat. I blasted it under the pile and it took off. The pile had frost on it!
I later picked up one of those weed burners at harbor freight tool for about $18. ....
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 | itsgottobegreen
Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 329 Mt. Airy, MD
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2003-12-03 70257
We have a leaf blower in our brush truck. Maybe thats why it in there, i only ever used it to blow snow back out the station door and to do a little house cleaning in the bunk rooms. It really there for moving piles of leaves away to make a fire break, but i think we should try it on the next back burn attempt, the last one when the wrong way and just made the fire bigger. The dept. above us has a new backpack blower fitted with a foam nozzle. It can shoot foam over 100ft, great on brush fire. ....
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 | Peters
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 3034 Northern AL
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2003-12-03 70260
I have not used a leaf blower but a good heavy duty shop vac works well with the pipe as mentioned by Murf. Blow rather than suck naturally.
It works great when cleaning depree quickly. Hooked to a burning barrel it will consume wood about as fast as you can stoke it in. I guess that is why the rail roads got away from using wood. ....
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| kubotaguy
Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 360 Shepherdstown, WV
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2003-12-04 70268
We were having a bon fire in my backyard for our church teenager's group. My next door neighbor is the assistant fire chief, so I asked him if they would bring an engine and brush truck mainly for the kids to look at and if things got hairy. The only problem is I couldn't get the fire going. The firefighters brought a gas powered blower and the fire went up like nobody's business. I guess firefighter's know how to start as well as put our fires too!!! ....
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