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Funny, my dad used to work in the city garage fixing snowplows and garbage trucks, among other things. They had a few incidents of trucks catching on fire, long

Funny, my dad used to work in the city garage fixing snowplows and garbage trucks, among other things. They had a few incidents of trucks catching on fire, long before the era of lithium batteries. Typically in those days it was someone discarding fireplace ashes that weren't dead-cold and thus contained a smoldering ember. It's surprisingly easy to sweep out such an ember from what appears to be a long-dead fire, but you'll discover the heat if you sift through the ashes with your hand, even casually.

SECProto 4y ago
I was recently researching what to do with an empty small butane canister (the kind used for portable gas stoves - same size/shape/wall thickness as a can of spraypaint). According to the municipal waste site for my city of just over 1 million, I can't put it out for any sort of collection, and I can't bring it back to the stores that sell them, I can't even take it to the landfill facility itself! The only option is some once-every-few-months single day events held in random far-flung parts of the city. While I'm responsible enough to hang on to it and dispose of it properly, I expect most people just chuck the empty (or almost-empty) canisters in the trash - causing exactly the same kind of fire risk you're talking about.
cmrdporcupine 4y ago
When I first moved to my rural property here I had built a bit of a 'house' for compositing leaves out of strawbales. I swept some ashes from my (I thought) long dead fire from a few days earlier in there. About midnight got a call from a neighbour ("your shed is on fire"). Fire department. Sirens. Two fire trucks. Major embarassment. Kids somehow slept through the whole thing.
- toss1 4y ago
  Yup I lived in a ski resort town for some times, and the fire chief said that THE most common cause of fires was visitors conscientiously sweeping out the fireplace, putting the (seemingly) dead ashes in a bag, and leaving them out on the porch with trash collection — hours later, the building is on fire...
  - cmrdporcupine 4y ago
    I have two fireplaces in my home, including a fairly expensive insert that can heat the whole main floor. And I kind of enjoy the whole wood burning thing. I live rural, so harvest my own trees, split, stack, etc. But honestly I've come around to a place where I think wood burning needs to be seen as a bygone era thing and probably quite regulated. I only do a fire a couple times a winter now. It's romantic and all, but it's polluting and of dubious safety.
    - toss1 4y ago
      Yup, same here

SECProto 4y ago

I was recently researching what to do with an empty small butane canister (the kind used for portable gas stoves - same size/shape/wall thickness as a can of spraypaint). According to the municipal waste site for my city of just over 1 million, I can't put it out for any sort of collection, and I can't bring it back to the stores that sell them, I can't even take it to the landfill facility itself! The only option is some once-every-few-months single day events held in random far-flung parts of the city. While I'm responsible enough to hang on to it and dispose of it properly, I expect most people just chuck the empty (or almost-empty) canisters in the trash - causing exactly the same kind of fire risk you're talking about.

cmrdporcupine 4y ago

When I first moved to my rural property here I had built a bit of a 'house' for compositing leaves out of strawbales. I swept some ashes from my (I thought) long dead fire from a few days earlier in there. About midnight got a call from a neighbour ("your shed is on fire"). Fire department. Sirens. Two fire trucks. Major embarassment. Kids somehow slept through the whole thing.

toss1 4y ago
Yup I lived in a ski resort town for some times, and the fire chief said that THE most common cause of fires was visitors conscientiously sweeping out the fireplace, putting the (seemingly) dead ashes in a bag, and leaving them out on the porch with trash collection — hours later, the building is on fire...
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  I have two fireplaces in my home, including a fairly expensive insert that can heat the whole main floor. And I kind of enjoy the whole wood burning thing. I live rural, so harvest my own trees, split, stack, etc. But honestly I've come around to a place where I think wood burning needs to be seen as a bygone era thing and probably quite regulated. I only do a fire a couple times a winter now. It's romantic and all, but it's polluting and of dubious safety.
  - toss1 4y ago
    Yup, same here