Well I finally had to give in and burn some of the brash that's been accumulating. There really is no way around it if I want to avoid to a fine from the GNR.
We may have got 2/3rds of the way round the 10 metre boundary strip already, and all the dead and weak pines are now cut out and all the broom cut and mostly raked, but it's just been sitting there in massive piles - 'tinder box' piles as I've dubbed them!
So it's clear, but not fire safe because of these brash piles, and the fire ban kicks in Mid-May, so I'm guessing that's the time when the real fire risk starts.
Getting a Fire License
Its necessary to get a license for a 'heap fire', which is thankfully something you can do online. A friend sent me the link and it all translates easily enough - I just needed my NIF number (which you need for just about everything in Portugal), a Portuguese phone number (used my friends, although there was no activation code) and then you can just enter a reason for fire (Brash clearance) and a date, then location.
Location is pretty cool - you get taken to Google maps and you simply 'pin' where your property is to give them a grid reference. That done, and 5 minutes later I had my risk analysis (26/100) and license via email.
It had rained a lot on Wednesday so I opted for Thursday as the burn day - very little risk of anything catching, and given the rain, my fire risk was probably lower than 26!
Setting up and safety (or lack of it)
The brash I wanted to drag out and burn was all at the top of the land so I opted to use the clear area near the house to burn it all, to save dragging everything even further.
The problem I had was that the clearest point was about 8 metres away from the house - anything else would have put it too near a cork oak I didn't want to singe and, worse, a large pine.
Still, I figured the dampness would mean this was a safe enough place, so I got some water in place - mainly for putting out after, but also to damp down anything that might have caught outside of the fire area, and then got started - oh, I also thought this area was good because of the large amount of sand to hand!
Getting the fire started and the first brash pile.
I had a few bits of kindling and small to medium sized logs I used to start the fire - it didn't need much to get a few initial embers going:
Starting small:
The first brash pile:
I started off very gingerly with this brash pile, adding on just a few branches of broom at a time, then gradually building things up - fires are like anything - you adapt to to not being freaked out the the larger and larger flames over time!
I'd also added some sand around the burn area by this stage.
Dragging out more brash
I had to use a tarp to drag out the brash from up the hill - I was dragging down which made things easier - I did about 12 tarp loads in all, once the tarp was full (the one in the picture isn't!).
A brash pile
Another brash pile
I didn't take too many photos, once you've seen one brash pile....!
Fire just goes on.....
The whole system worked quite nicely - drag out one pile, stack it on the fire, go back and get another, by which time the previous pile was settling down, and I just carried on like that, pausing occasionally to not let the fire get too outrageous and raking up all the brash that had inevitably fallen near the fire in the process of piling it on...
At its peak
I never let it get too large, too close to the house, a nice controlled burn!
Dying down and putting out
After about 4 hours of this (I had a late start and, thanks to me not realising my phone had jumped forward an hour to Spanish time, and early finish) I had a nice pile of embers so I stopped for a coffee....
Ember heap and coffee
Extinguishing equipment...
I'd bought some water from Alpedrinha as it's easier than the well I've got on the land (I have a tap in Alpredinha, and a hose!) and one bucket I dragged up from the well. I hadn't had time to sort out water to my IBC by the house, that's firmly on today's list of must dos. I had actually thought I'd do that in between pile burns, but it all burned so quickly I had to just keep on dragging!
I figured the water wouldn't be enough, so to save my lugging I simply emptied a bag of moist compost on top, effectively putting it out using earth. It'll all be good for planting eventually!
Cool compost
Once I'd added all the water and compost, I couldn't feel any heat coming from it and so I felt comfortable enough to leave.
And I'll either use this as the base for my next fire and just repeat the process or I'll mix and eventually extract this to a compost bin - ash is full of good stuff, I'm sure there's certain plants that love it, I'm told asparagus is partial, and who doesn't like asparagus!?!
There is some hope for real compost
I'd noticed that some of the broom that I'd attacked with my Sthil Brush cutter had started to rot down, enough for me to be able to distribute it across the middle of the woodland (inside the 10 metre safety strip) and for it not to be too much of a fire hazard - it's enough on its way to being compost!
I know someone with a hedge trimmer which is much better suited to chipping brash as you can work vertically with it, so I'm going to attack some of the Broom piles and compost them down that way! a
That pinning your location on a map idea is a good one so that fire crews know exactly where to go if things DO get out of hand.
Have you ever tried hugelkultur? I remember a while back @ecoinstant wrote about doing some beds that way, and there's a guy in Australia on YouTube called Sustainable Me who does raised garden beds with hugelkultur. It might be a good way to deal with the brash, since it's buried?
"Disappointingly satifying" made me LOL, by the way. 😂
Hugel beds were and still are my preferred option but I've got to get this land clear before the real Fire season starts which is only a couple of months away.
There are some places I can put them brash and create them, but that would mean digging, which would require a digger and I just haven't got the time to get this sorted before June when it's dry.
Also the ideal places for them would require a lot of dragging of brash - as in 200 metres - from the upper boundaries.
In short there's just too much of it and too little time!
At least the ash is nutritious!
Also, the broom and pines will come back, it's not as if I'll be short of hugel material years down the line when I'm ahead of the curve!
All totally valid! I just mention because you said "disappointingly." :) Controlled burns are a natural and needed thing to do, too!
It's just a shame to let so many nutrients go to waste!
nice, we love a fire! No safety requirements needed...
Lucky you, where in the world are you?
If I were back in Britain, I could just leave all of the brash to rot, there's very little fire risk!
I’m in Brighton uk lol
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