[mulmen]

> It's very important to park the engine close to the fire but not too close. Ask me how I learned this.

I was a farm hand as a summer job to cover beer and books in my college years. We harvested wheat which carries a high fire risk. Most farms kept a tractor with a large plow hooked up so it could quickly encircle and contain any fires.

Pulling a 40’ wide plow is hard. Tractors can do it because they have huge engines that suck in huge amounts of oxygen.

Just like fires.

If you get a tractor too close to a fire it starves for oxygen and stalls out. The plow becomes an anchor. There’s just enough time to bail out before the tires catch fire. After a few minutes the whole thing is a pile of ash and melted steel.

[dreamcompiler]

Didn't know wheat harvest came with fire risk. I know about the dangers of grain silos but I didn't know the harvest itself was risky.

[mulmen]

Oh yeah. It’s a constant threat.

The wheat is harvested “dry”. The plant dies and dries out. The drier the better. Moisture leads to mold in the silos and clogs up the harvesters.

The wheat is harvested by “combines” which are literally a combination harvester and thresher. Both machines are extremely complex.

They’re used at 110% capacity to beat the fall rains then sit rotting for 9-10 months. Lots of seized bearings or broken bits of machines sparking and starting fires.

The grain trucks I drove had their air conditioners removed to discourage idling and the exhaust pipes dumped directly in front of the rear tires to auto-snuff exhaust fires.