I guess it can happen!!!!

[MudBud]

Read this article from Maine!!!!

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090414-NEWS-90414032

[breederman]

It sure can. I know a guy that dumped his ashes by his owb and it burned up the furnace and all of his wood pile.   Fire was so hot that it melted the vinal siding on his house.

[thecfarm]

I read that in the paper too.Was a much longer article that I saw.Someone who lives in the same town that I talked to thinks it might of been the daughter cleaning it out.The wind was blowing wicked hard yesterday,not a good day to be cleaning out a furnace.He says they had some old grandfather clocks that belong to her mother  and other antiques.Probaly one of those that does not have grates in it.The ashes have to shoveled out of the feed door,hot coals and all.Almost as bad as someone putting ashes in a cardboard box and putting them on the back porch.Started quite a fire on the back side of their house.

[MudBud]

After reading this and doing what I do with just some ashes out of the reaction chamber, what do most people use to snuff out the ashes or coals when cleaning and still hot?  Do you use a metal trash container with a lid?  When snow is out I fill my metal garden wagon all winter long and snuff it out with snow, but now spring is here with higher winds which now makes it more susceptible to this happening. 

Keith

[beenthere]

I put the ashes in a galv. metal bucket, and set it on the concrete slab outside until cool. Then dump "in the woods". 

[DanG]

My first exwife learned that lesson in a harsh manner.  She used her brand new, hi-dollar vacuum cleaner to clear the ashes from the wood stove.  A little while later she smelled smoke and saw it coming from the closet.  Nothing else was damaged, but the vac was toast...literally.

[tonto]

I can see how easy this can happen. I have an old heavy gauge steel vacuum cleaner that I use as a holding can and it has a lid. It has been a week or 10 days sometimes before they are totally cooled off so I can discard them properly. It was nice when there was snow on the ground, I could just dump on the snow. Tonto.

[thecfarm]

I found it.

http://www.sunjournal.com/story/312493-3/LewistonAuburn/Fire_consumes_Wales_home/

A helicopter was bought in to haul water too.
I use a galv garbage can,with a lid,even in the winter time,if the ashes are not needed for the driveway.

[TaylorStoveGuy]

I use a 20-30 gal grease drum.  I just shovel it in until it's full, and dump it out back for gardening in the summer.  You can check at local truck or car repair shops.  The factory I work at just throws them in the dumpster when the grease is gone.

[OneWithWood]

I shovel the ashes into my front loader and then dump them into an old bucket off a crawler/ loader.  After a few days I shovel them onto the compost pile.

[Tom Sawyer]

Last night at 10:30 just after my wife had turned off the light my phone rang.  I would normally have let the machine take a message, but I glanced at the number and noticed it was a very good friend and former boss who got me into sawmilling, so I answered.  He told me that his shop had just gone up in flames.

It had been a very windy day and he decided to clean out the ash pan in his OWB (right beside the shop).  He dumped the ashes into a wheelbarrow and then decided that wasn't a great idea, so he got a water hose and filled the wheelbarrow with water.  However, some sparks must have blown out that he didn't notice and found a nice spot to smoulder for a few hours before bursting into flames.

He lost his shop (with 2000 bdft of kiln dried lumber), attached kiln (also full - another 2000bdft), his 24" woodmaster planer, all his tools, his band sharpening equipment (3 WM grinders and a setter), about 200 bands, spare parts, and all the other stuff that he has collected over the years.  Thankfully the sawmill was outside.

They were talking with insurance today and will decide what their next move will be.  You can bet that I will be thinking about what happened to him every time I clean out my ashes.

Tom

[MudBud]

Thanks Tom for sharing that, you just never know when it can happen to you.

[okie]

I put the ashes in a galv. metal bucket, and set it on the concrete slab outside until cool. Then dump "in the woods". 

Me too.

[Frickman]

A local fellow burned down his house a few years ago when he left a steel bucket of ashes on his wooden porch before he went to bed. He and his wife had to be rescued from their second floor bedroom.

[logwalker]

I actually saved a friends house a few years ago. He was out of town with his wife and his teenage boy was left the chore of cleaning the ashes out of the woodstove. They never told him where to put them so he put them in the garbage can next to the house. I drove up to visit and found the side of the house engulfed in flames. I grabbed a 5 gallon bucket and ran to the pool for several trips till it was out. The kid was inside and didn't know I was there till it was out.

I don't think he will do that again.   

[rowerwet]

had a home go up in smoke here in NH due to ashes from a pellet stove being dumped into a plastic 5 gal bucket, then they went to the movies.
I use a steel mop bucket for my pellet ashes, they go down the road into the snow bank. Now I will have to think about where to store the bucket when it isn't full enough to go down the road.