I was flame weeding next to a garden bed adjacent to my house and accidentally caught some dried thyme that was growing all around the perimeter. Easily a 20 foot ring. It went from 0 to 60 in seconds. Like if you’ve ever lit a dry Christmas tree it was like that. I ran and got the hose which was luckily only 30 feet away, but not hooked up, so I had to hook it up and turn it on which when you are flooded with stress hormones is really fucking hard.
I and was able to put it out but it was really fucking scary. My hands are still shaking 10 mins later from the adrenaline.
I am proud of myself for staying calm and focused and doing what had to be done in the moment but uh… Holy shit comrades
Good to hear you’re ok comrade.
While it might be extra work, have the hose set up in the future in case things go haywire. Glad you made it back in time and kept cool though.
From the thumbnail I thought you just started a fire and are procrastinating in front of it now. Just imagined you in front of a forest on fire chilling with your phone and ask lemmy what to do now ;-) Glad I was wrong and you got it under control!
In the old days, we mailed a letter to the US forest service while watching it burn
I think there’s a bit from The IT Crowd about this
Damn that sounds pretty scary, I’d be pissing my pantaloons. Nice work!
Still coming down from it! Usually when I accidentally catch something flame weeding I can stomp it out, I took off my shoe and tried to beat it and in the 10 seconds it took me to do that it had tripled in size. It was at that point I threw everything aside and sprinted for the hose.
Worst part was having to turn my back on it while I got the hose hooked up, the urge to look back and see the growth was overwhelming. I am amazed I managed to retain focus there it was scary as hell
Courage under literal fire.
When I was in high school I was chopping up some leaves with our riding lawn mower, at the request of my parents. The leaves built up in the mowing deck and caught fire due to friction. I jumped off the lawn mower because I was afraid it would blow up, since I just filled up the gas tank. Tires melted, and there was a 20 ft burn mark all around the mower. I was too far away for our water hose to reach, but fortunately our neighbor saw what was happening and put the fire out with an extinguisher. I was not permitted to cut grass again for a while…
Ride on mowers cost as much as a car where I live. Did y’all buy a second hand one?
Edit: I fucking hate lawns :3
I don’t think it was second hand but this was 10+ years ago and we had already had that mower for like 20 years at that point.
in a few hours go and check to make sure it’s fully out. sometimes things can smoulder for a while and come back
Yikes! Are you in a high fire risk area? If you are, go back and douse it again until you stop seeing steam! Good work getting it under control.
No fortunately I am in a lush green place where it has been raining for weeks
Whew, life altering (even multiple life ending) crisis averted! When I lived in AZ for a while and still smoked, I threw a lit butt out my car window. Being from an region that’s almost never had a wild fire, I never had to think about it. The guy behind me got it stuck in his truck grill and oppted to follow me to my stop to educate me on it. One of those oh shit moments. Always have a plan when playing with fire folks!
Yeah lesson learned the easy way for sure I will never flame weed without the hose hooked up and close again
Just like me, frfr.
glad it all turned out ok.
I took this class in wildland firefighting, and we spent some time talking about planned burns / fire ecology, but most of the time and effort was spent on training for wildland fire fighting.
it basically turned my capacity to catastrophize up to 11.
Fire gets real scary the moment you are no longer in charge.
Compounded if you are alone (everything gets worse alone) Especially when you try to control it and what you did gets ignored by the fire. How many times can a human being say “oh shit” under their breath in 10 seconds? Because the world record holder probably belongs to someone who watched their fire escape containment.
My in-laws and I had a scare with fire a few years ago. Someone lit a firecracker near some dry hedges and if went up quickly. It’s terrifying how fast everything goes from 0 to 100. We made a quick team where we got pots and pans and filled with water to try to do whatever we could to stop the fire from spreading toward the houses. It was terrifying and it felt like trying to stop the tide. Luckily the fire department came before the fire spread to the house (we were not in America, so the fire department was nearby and functional), the whole thing felt surreal and it was so quick.
That adrenaline hits hard. Take a breath, and congradulate yourself.
It’s over.[Edit, I second the opinion about watching over any smoldering. If there is smoke, you got to nip it in the bud.]
Nice job getting it out, crazy experience!
My dad used to do prairie fires. The local Fire Department knew him by first name and eventually had to wean him out of it.
But howdy, as a kid it was fun running out with jugs of water when it got out of control because my dad was too cheap for a hose.
Only you can prevent Time Fires.
Glad you got it under control. Good PSA for everyone.
Too bad no pigs were involved 
I did controlled burns for a while, and don’t really have anything to add that others haven’t already said… but I bet it’s the last time you don’t have the hose at the ready hahaha 😂. Fr though glad it turned out okay. We heard of another crew in the area that was doing a cattail burn (one of the hottest) at a retention pond and melted the siding on a bunch of homes nearby lol so at least you didn’t do that.
In a sensible world, we do not have compulsions about lawn control, let alone with fossil fuels, and the only thing “flame weeding” refers to is doing dabs.
