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pizzadude
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 01:35am
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After three days, you'd think coals would burn themselves out.
Well, apparently not!
Lesson learned is always make certain your fire is out, and never scoop your ashes into a plastic bucket!
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rayyy
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 06:24am
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I hope "no damage done" there pizzadude
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Jebediah
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 09:43am
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I have seen a metal pail glowing red hot 24 hrs after someone cleaned out their woodstove and put it outside. The finer ashes provide the perfect environment to keep those larger coals/embers going for a very long time.
As a joke I told my Newfie friend, that's why Home Depot plastic buckets come with safety instructions, he said I didn't see any safety instructions, my Sunshine(wife)must have thrown them out. And then I thought to myself, I actually think they do come with safety instructions or a warning/hazard label. You know like bend at the knees, no acid mixtures, don't use as helmet...
You are not the first and won't be the last! I'm sure others on here have a few horror stories. Hope all is well.
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old243
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 10:18am
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Pizza, We have a 5 gallon steel bucket , we put our ashes in. Store them , until they are cold , then spread them on our garden , good source of potash for the plants.
I understand the pioneers would bank some coals under ashes in the fireplace, before they went to bed so they would have some live coals , to get their fire started in the morning. Or if they lost the coals , would go to the neighbors and borrow some. Hope you didn't have serious damage. old243
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pizzadude
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 11:30am
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No damage, thank God.
I was enthralled in a good read at the time. I looked up and saw a bright glow outside my door, and then realized I could hear the distinct sound of fire. Very scary until I saw the fire was contained inside the bucket and with the snow on the ground I knew it wasn't a threat to me. Still. It was close to the outside wall..
I'm thankful for the snow
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Steve_S
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 12:08pm
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I always use an Ash Bucket with latched lid, even when I use my outdoor Burn Barrel which I dump into the bucket and let sit for a couple of days before dumping out.
I'd suggest investing in one, well worth it IMO.
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silverwaterlady
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 02:13pm
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It's not just ash buckets. In our cabin area people have put out campfires thinking they were out to see DAYS later the ground smothering hundreds of feet away from the original campfire.This a underground fire created from the original campfire.
This is why we don't have a fire pit at our cabin. We don't want boaters stumbling upon it and burning our property down.
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 08:52pm
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Here is a coal fire that has been burning since 1961. 
Centrailia Underground Coal Fire
http://www.businessinsider.com/coal-mines-in-centralia-pennsylvania-have-been-burning -since-1962-2015-7
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rky60
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 09:29pm
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I go through Centralia to and from my cabin, only 15 minutes from house. But I've never stopped there to check it all out. Lots of folks do, kind of a big attraction actually. I'm surrounded by old mines, literally, 40 yards behind my house there's one in the side of the mountain. And they're still going at the coal another 300 yards behind me, but that's an open pit. I can scrap 6 inches off my "lawn" and hit coal
I was at the property burning all the limbs from clearing the trees, in heavy rain, took forever to get the fire started. I stayed until it was just wiffs of smoke, still raining hard. Came back 7 days later and found it still going...Lesson learned 
How we found it!
https://youtu.be/5AhT00zOQ00
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Don_P
Member
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2015 09:56pm - Edited by: Don_P
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One of our state foresters told me about a mysterious fire, or it was mysterious until they put it all together, the lightning strike happened over 20 days before the fire, the old snag smoldered for that long.
Yup, as a kid I caught the backyard on fire with ashes from the woodstove in a cardboard box. Even at that age I knew better but was lazy and I knew they were cold.
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gsreimers
Member
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2015 07:52pm
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fyi if your not 100 % sure the ashes in your woodburning stove are completely cold, vacumning them with your shop vac will let you know for sure. It will also give you an excuse to get a new shop vac. Don't ask me how I know.
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