Compost Fires (Nothing to do with blight..)

[raisedbedted]

Went down to the lottie last night and was working away moaning about the fact that someone had a very smokey bonfire.

Then I noticed it was the next door allotments compost pile on fire so had to carry buckets of water down to douse it.

This is the second time I've noticed this (different plot the first time), is this quite common and is there a way to prevent it as my own heap abuts my shed  :-X

Thanks and may the spores be with you...

[raisedbedted]

[cambourne7]

eak ....composts do generate a lot of heat maybe they got 2 dry and the heat ignited the dry material.

found this quote

"Locate your composting piles or bins about 10 feet or more away from structures, but within reach of a garden hose. This helps keep interested animals at a distance, allows easy watering of the compost and is also good fire safety. While compost fires are rare, compost piles do generate heat, and under certain conditions, the material may smolder or even catch fire."

[raisedbedted]

Sounds like good advice, the only thing I can find to link the 2 incidents is that;

A) They were both on the plots next to mine
B) The first was on Arthurs plot who is into his 80's, the second was on a similarly aged lady.

My analysis therefore concludes,
A) I am an arsonist or
B) Older folk are better at building 'hot heaps'

I shall relocated my heap next year I think once its empty.

[cambourne7]

Good Plan, My sheds about 10 ft away from my compost bin.

However my neighbours sheds about 4ft from my bin :-)

[philandjan]

eak ....composts do generate a lot of heat maybe they got 2 dry and the heat ignited the dry material.

Give us a clue? What planet are they on?
I doubt that we could get anything alight on our allotment even with the help of a flame-thrower!
;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

Same here. Are we talking about the Atacama Desert?

[cambourne7]

checked my compost today and it was as dry as a bone so i have added some water to it today.

[Eristic]

Something tells me that the old boy is going to be a bit miffed when he finds his heap still there tomorrow. :P

[ACE]

checked my compost today and it was as dry as a bone so i have added some water to it today.

I expect you made it worse,I heard it is the damp that causes spontanious combustion. That is why you do not store damp cloths under the sink with all the airesol cleaners.

[Robert_Brenchley]

You need enough damp for decay, and thus heating, to occur, but at the same time not so much damp that nothing can dry out; there has to be a dry spot to ignite. That being said, we get mountains of hot decaying grass cuttings on the site, which often have dry layers in them, at least in a normal summer. We've never had a fire yet. I suspect the use of matches!

[raisedbedted]

Cant imagine in this case it would have been deliberate by the plotholder as the compost bin itself is made of wood.  Perhaps the old girl was having a crafty ciggie!

[caroline7758]

I've seen the same thing on what looked like a pile of manure on one of the plots at our site. Having said that, it was right next to the footpath so could have been a dropped cigarette or vandalism.

[Eristic]

The ignition temperature of grass seems to be between 300 - 400 degrees f so long before a heap was hot enough to catch fire by itself it would be hot enough to boil a kettle of water for a cuppa. I have never seen a heap catch fire without some help, and I've had some big heaps in my time.

The carelessly tossed cigarette butt is a likely cause of the fires and while most smokers will painstakingly tell you how careful and considerate they are to others, they rarely stub out the fag when in an open situation, and the waste pile is a likely place to toss unwanted rubbish.

[artichoke]

A friend in southern France (Camargue) had his compost heap catch fire and he was really annoyed. No chance of cigarette or match. I saw the burnt wooden surround not long afterwards.

One of the most famous literary examples of spontaneous combustion was in "Far from the madding crowd" - apparently it was quite common in damp hayricks.

[asbean]

I've often seen tractors towing trailers of hay or straw that's smoking or even on fire!

[Columbus]

Hi all,

A couple of years ago I was able to collect wood chippings as a mulch for
my fruit cage. Just under the top layer of the piles I was collecting from the
chippings were hot and gray and looked like ash. It seemed like the piles were
about to spontaneously combust and it was a good thing I was cooling them
off a bit. I thought it might melt the bags I was using.
They never did ignite though.

Also I grow my squash on piles of leaf mould as it gets nice and warm inside
those piles too.

Col