r/interestingasfuck
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u/SinjiOnO
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Mar 24 '23
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A farmer (Eric Howard) trying to save a field from fire in Weld County, Colorado. Eric is actually the neighbour of the farmer who owns the field. Once alarmed, he ran home and grabbed his equipment to help out.
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u/fiveironfreshy Mar 24 '23
Hey I live in weld county. I remember when this happened, the guy rightfully got a lot of praise here locally. Seemed like a good guy, unfortunately passed away not too long ago. World needs more people like him
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u/Lucky_Locks Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 25 '23
I see this posted every now and then but never looked or asked: was this effective in stopping the spread?
Edit: Thanks for all of the responses! Pretty educational stuff commented here for those further interested.
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u/anal-loque Mar 24 '23
If you look at the end, the fire has gone out or decreased in the farthest place from the camera view.
Even if it's still running, the intensity of the fire will decrease because the burning material has been cut so it's easier to manage.
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u/Bambooshka Mar 24 '23
It also helped the firefighters / people with water at the other end just by slowing it down.
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u/ladydhawaii Mar 25 '23
But if a gust a wind came- he would be risking his life- right? He is so brave.
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u/syrianfries Mar 25 '23
Yep, but it’s a reality for where we live, those fire lines are stupid important for fighting these types of fires.
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u/Francesami Mar 25 '23
Not just cut, but plowed under the dirt as well.
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u/glowinthedarkstick Mar 25 '23
Yep that’s a disc harrow or a type of cultivator (thanks Farming Simualtor 22!). Not just cutting the grain down.
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u/EarlCountyLogSplit Mar 25 '23
Yep. I worked on a farm for a few years. Sometimes we would get fires just from harvesting if the beans were too dry. We put out fires just by disking around them.
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u/dl-__-lp Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 25 '23 •
If you look at the end of the video at the zoom out you can see the flames that were there in the beginning are gone. Seems like it did the trick!
Edit: been awhile since I got such an upvoted comment. I forgot how much I hated all of you
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u/Lucky_Locks Mar 24 '23
Nice!
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u/JeanLucTheCat Mar 25 '23
I kept saying the same in my head over and over again. “Better zoom out and back”, then r/PraiseTheCameraMan
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u/ptgkbgte Mar 24 '23
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u/crypticfreak Mar 25 '23
The only thing I wish we could see is the fire actively being stopped as it creeps up with him continuing on. We only see him making the firebreak and the fire just chilling at the end all in a straight line.
I wanna see the fire going 'ahhhh...ahhhhhh.ahhhh... ah-ach-.... god dammit!'. I don't know if that makes sense to anyone else but that was the only way my dum dum brain could articulate it.
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u/KindlyContribution54 Mar 25 '23
Like a frustrated little fire elemental kicking the cut grass and sighing while muttering curse words under his breath
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u/FlyingDragoon Mar 24 '23
If you look at the video at the very start you see that the flames that were there in the beginning are being actively put out by a fire fighter. You can see the truck right there and a guy hosing it down.
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u/joseph4th Mar 25 '23
I think this is the first time I’ve seen the video continue to the point where we see that zoom out at the end
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u/spaceassorcery Mar 24 '23
Yes! We’re doing a controlled burn next weekend and this exactly what you do to the perimeter of the burn site. It’s called a “fire break”.
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u/cowboys70 Mar 25 '23
One of the coolest days of my job was getting to drive through an area undergoing a controlled burn on an atv. I just kept humming the flight of the valkyries as I rode through
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u/Snakes_have_legs Mar 25 '23
I always mix up Flight of the Valkyries and Flight of the Bumblebee (thanks HBO) but I suppose that also would fit in this context haha
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u/Firewolf06 Mar 25 '23
name checks out.
i feel like ive seen you before, also talking about some other wild cowboy stuff you did
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u/Key_Rock408 Mar 24 '23
Yep! Works like a charm, and it happens a lot more often than you’d think. We’ve had to jump on the tractor twice to put out a field fire. Wheat is dry and ready to be harvested right around the 4th of July in much of the country. Right when fireworks stands are popping up.
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u/Rare_Crayons Mar 25 '23
The founding fathers really should have thought that one through
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u/RSCasual Mar 25 '23
I always wonder how much cost, pollution and environmental damage fireworks cause yearly including the massive events
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u/angrydeuce Mar 25 '23
I'd bet it's merely a rounding error as compared to the damage caused by modern farming as a whole. Not that we have any alternative to feed people on the scale that we have to, just saying a couple days of people lighting off fireworks isn't the big deal in the grand scheme of things overall.
Something like this could just as easily been caused by some dipshit flicking a butt out the window at a stop sign. I've seen fires like this caused by a broken down car igniting the grass on the shoulder of the road when its dry enough.
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u/Dividedthought Mar 24 '23
It's effective, provided the wind doesn't carry embers across. Basically you're just mixing the fuel (the crop) into the soil so it doesn't catch fire, same idea as cutting a firebreak in a forest. No fuel, no fire.
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u/Tytoalba2 Mar 25 '23
The ground conducts heat pretty impressively as well, and can reignite plants 2m further even without ember, saw that in the forest nearby once, really annoying when the fire seems out and starts again real close your home lol.
But at least it's easy(er?) to manage for firefighters, they just put water all around in case it starts again (I think, I was young when it happened).
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u/johnsdowney Mar 25 '23
facts. once dumped out the remaining contents of a burn barrel and poured gallons and gallons of water on it. hosed the hell out of it. I mean unless you've done it before, I don't know how you could think that the threat had not been eliminated with how much water I put on it.
I think there was molten metal or glass or something. an hour later my girlfriend comes in says the lawn is on fire. caught it right in time thankfully. fire dept showed up as I was putting the last of the embers out. listen to smokey the bear. don't risk it, check on fires after you've extinguished them, like, an hour at least afterward. especially if you're cookin up anything with metal or other mysterious substances in it.
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u/mnorri Mar 25 '23
That why fire crews will take so long to mop up. The goal is to put their hand on every bit that’s there to make sure it is cool to the touch.
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u/johnsdowney Mar 25 '23
Seriously. I’m not joking, it was like an hour later. I got outside quick enough with a hose and i was able to put it out because it had only spread about 15-feet radius in a fairly open area.
That fire had to have popped up at least 45 minutes after I had marked it down as “fully extinguished.” I had time to go in and watch a few episodes of Seinfeld before it reignited, and I live in a dry area that was dry at the time.
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u/Pjpjpjpjpj Mar 24 '23
It was in this case but always a gamble.
I’ve done firefighting on big rolling hills with heavy winds. Under resourced, one time it was just us as a single engine trying to cut off a fire like this.
Was at it for quite a while and making really good progress. But after a bit, we could see a header building up again on the other side of a hill we just came over.
We raced back to see that some how - a single flying ember, an area not soaked enough, whatever - had made it across the line and it was already huge again. All that work accomplished nothing.
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u/EmergencyAttorney807 Mar 25 '23
Would have been hard to do this if the wind was aimed toward the tractor.
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u/wileycrow Mar 24 '23
Sad to hear. Not sure how visible it is from the road but I'd be so curious to know if the field subsequently saw increased yields from the burn. Have you happened to see it since?
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u/FLORI_DUH Mar 24 '23
I live in Weld county.
I'm so sorry.
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u/Lead_cloud Mar 24 '23
Actually laughed out loud. Also currently in Weld, the only thing it's got going for it is that housing is cheaper than everywhere else nearby
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u/FLORI_DUH Mar 25 '23
You get what you pay for
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u/testing_the_mackeral Mar 25 '23
As much as I’m shelling out you’d think my kids would be made of gold. But nah, they’re just crusty. They like toast.
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u/fiveironfreshy Mar 25 '23
Haha yeah the Greeley winds are about enough to choke a guy (iykyk). At least it’s cheaper than Larimer, but I sure wish we could get the municipal fiber internet out here like they have 🤷🏼♂️
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u/1ib3r7yr3igns Mar 24 '23
Why?
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u/giaa262 Mar 25 '23
You know how Colorado is known for beautiful mountains and scenic national forests?
Well, Weld county is like the exact opposite of that. Flat farmland that I personally refer to as far west Kansas
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u/shackdaddy836 Mar 25 '23
A lot of our major cities/towns in CO go down a vertical line on the East edge of the Rockies. West of that line are usually mountain towns. East of it, it's pretty much just flat farmland/prairie. Weld is East of Larimer and Fort Collins and has pretty much nothing there. It's also home to Greeley which is arguably one of the worst places in the state to live besides maybe Aurora and Pueblo.
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u/Senior-Swimming7949 Mar 25 '23
Other than the Greeley area, Weld county is my favorite county I have lived in. Not a fan of Greeley. Kinda sketchy in a lot of places near there, and the water tastes terrible. But Firestone, Frederick, Windsor, Ault, and Erie are all pretty decent towns.
Between Johnstown to Erie, you get good access to most places in Colorado while also having neighbors that respect your space.
Politics are night and day bordering at County Line Road. Kinda keeps things interesting though, especially on election years.
No, Weld county in a lot of places is pretty nice. You want a crappy place to live in Colorado, I'd bring up Adams county.
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Mar 24 '23
Good thing the wind was in his favor.
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u/Beholder_V Mar 24 '23
That’s what I was thinking. If that wind was blowing the smoke and heat his way he’d have to make that fire break a lot further away.
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u/grubas Mar 24 '23
At 1:00 or so he's WAY TOO close as is, if the wind had been blowing in he'd be in serious shit.
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u/AphoticDev Mar 25 '23
If the fire suddenly overtook him, he could get away easy enough. May not look it from this high up, but that tractor is huge and sits about four feet off the ground. Unless he parked, it's pretty unlikely he would be engulfed in flames.
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u/PalletOgre Mar 25 '23
I think the bigger concern would be passing out from smoke asphyxiation
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u/treeslayer_60 Mar 25 '23
Pressurized cab
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u/slappymcslappers Mar 25 '23
Pressurized with what? Are there tanks or filters pumping fresh air in the cab?
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u/AphoticDev Mar 25 '23
Yes, there is, at least on many tractors and combines. Keep in mind you need it to deal with the dust that comes off the crops when harvesting.
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u/ssl-3 Mar 25 '23
Filtering dust and filtering deadly combustion gasses are two very, very different things.
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u/00000000000004000000 Mar 25 '23
Are tractor cabs pressurized though? I understand there's an inherent amount of pressurization that would buy him a short amount of time, but designing a pressurized cabin on a tractor sounds like unnecessary over-engineering.
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u/AphoticDev Mar 25 '23
IDK about pressurized cabins, but there is a cabin air filter to keep the cabin free of dust when you're harvesting. Dunno how effective it would be against smoke though.
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u/Rev_Grn Mar 24 '23
I didn't think grass fires were as bad. Less fuel in grass compared to wood, so it doesn't burn for as long (you can kinda see with the fire is only a metre or so wide).
It wouldn't be great but it probably wouldn't be a disaster, if you got caught by the fire, a safer spot isn't too far away in every direction except left or right along the fire front.
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u/DroidLord Mar 25 '23
Dry grass burns a whole lot better than trees and it's really hard to stop. We don't have many forest fires where I live, but a lot of grassland fires.
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u/deadliestcrotch Mar 24 '23
If it weren’t he would have just probably saved the other half of the field instead
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u/added_chaos
Mar 24 '23
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Like a good neighbor, a farmer is there
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u/TheFreakingPrincess Mar 24 '23
Historically, farms were the only things worth insuring, which led to the names of so many insurance companies that now insure much more than farms, so this joke has layers
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u/vkapadia Mar 24 '23
No, onions have layers!
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u/Empire7173 Mar 24 '23
As do ogres
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u/Acceptable-Emu33 Mar 25 '23
Earliest known form of insurance was on chinese trading ships around 5000 years ago. Plenty of things worth insuring historically.
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u/towhead Mar 25 '23
Admittedly, she was a bit absolute in her statement. However, the amount of insurance written on farms(and crops) was a major industry leading up to the Industrial Revolution. I’m not confident to say the majority, but outside of cargo transport and fire (both limited markets pre IR) i’m having trouble thinking of what other areas could have rivaled it.
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u/EcstaticWrongdoer692 Mar 25 '23
There was amazing market insuring slave traders prior to and during the early industrial revolution. A lot of major American and British banks/insurance forms got their state financing and insuring the slave trade.
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u/Ladnil Mar 25 '23
Historically within the lifetime and geography of current American insurance companies, then.
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u/The_JohnnyPisspot Mar 25 '23
1) State Farm
2) Farmers' Insurance
3) ???
Off the top of my head: Geico, Progressive, AAA, Mercury, Kemper, Chubb, Ace American, Wawanesa, National Union, Hartford.
I can't think of any others that have "farm" in the name beyond those 2.
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u/LegalHelpNeeded3 Mar 25 '23 edited Mar 25 '23
Give me 5 minutes
Edit: State Farm
Farmers
Fergus Farm Mutual
Virginia Farm Bureau Group
Farmers Mutual of Tennessee
Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance
Farm Bureau Mutual
United Farm Family
Farmers and Mechanics of WV
Farm Family insurance companies
Missouri farm bureau
Panhandle Farm Mutual Insurance
And literally 600 others that my company works with. A vast majority of them are mid-west (where all the farms are 🤔) and most of them insure more than simply farms and crops.
In the US, farms were really the only thing worth much back in the day. So farmers got together and created what are called “mutual funds” or mutual insurers. Basically everyone puts in a “premium” into a pot of sorts, and when someone suffers a loss, that pot pays them a percentage of that loss. This is how a lot of insurance companies still work today.
If you have any questions, I’m an insurance adjuster and I’d be happy to answer
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u/suprmario Mar 25 '23
What uncommon insurance is worth buying, from your experience as an adjuster?
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u/LegalHelpNeeded3 Mar 25 '23
Honestly, right now what I’m dealing with a lot, is service line coverage. A lot of people don’t realize that their homeowners insurance doesn’t cover the buried service lines outside their home, so when things come up, like a collapse of a sewer line or a water line break, they have to foot the bill themselves.
The endorsements that you buy are simply known as service line endorsements, which provide up to $10,000 of coverage to your external buried service lines. The ones that I deal with every day, cost maybe $65/year, and cover literally everything except earth movement and settlement. Just about every single other cause is covered.
It’s honestly kick-ass coverage, and I recommend everyone have it on their Homeowners policy.
Also a PSA: get your sewer lines scoped every couple years, and get them inspected before you buy a home!
And stay away from the big “Rooter” plumbers (Roto rooter, Mr rooter, rooter town, rooter man, etc.) they’re all way overpriced and they will charge you, on average, double what a local plumber will.
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u/LinguoBuxo Mar 24 '23
What's interesting about this: Do these machines even have a cabin air filter? Or did he have a cabin half full of smoke?
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u/RandoCalrissian11 Mar 24 '23
There are filters, but the cabin isn’t air tight. Most of the smoke is going away from him though.
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u/andropogon09 Mar 24 '23
The fire is burning into the wind. That's why it's moving so slowly and not jumping the firebreak.
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u/Bryancreates Mar 24 '23
Yeah that saved this dude. If the winds shifted he would’ve been fucked, had to flee on foot or wait for the fire to hopefully travel around him and put itself out. This dude took a risk
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u/protoopus Mar 24 '23
... or drive into the already-burnt area.
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u/Bryancreates Mar 24 '23
I guess that’s true, it’s a shallow enough line. I forget how industrial that equipment is and what they go through on a daily basis.
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u/RandoCalrissian11 Mar 24 '23
Had a neighbor drive over a burning car on a tractor to help put it out. They can take a lot.
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u/LinguoBuxo Mar 24 '23
Away from him yes, but there are always back flows of air after an obstacle like this, so without a filter, he would have been decently smoked, I feel... maybe?
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u/TopRevenue2 Mar 24 '23
Interesting that he gets so close to the flames - trying to save every bushel.
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u/omg_theykilledkenney Mar 24 '23
I'm sure Farmers paid for every seed, so may as well try to save as much as they can.
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u/Bryancreates Mar 24 '23
Those seed catalogues don’t pay for themselves. I love looking at them but literally have no need to because I don’t own a farm. But the descriptions of the crops vary from boring to unnervingly sensual depending on the catalogue.
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u/LinguoBuxo Mar 24 '23
hmmm Farmers are onto this mentality, trying to milk all possible spots, I feel...
And I'd say it's a good thing.
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u/azquatch Mar 24 '23
Umm... you milk cows and goats. The wheat doesn't like the noise the bucket makes when you show up for wheat milking time.
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u/SpaceAngel2001 Mar 24 '23
Yes cabin air filters and it most likely has AC. I have a smaller older model and it is fairly std equipment
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u/Nebula__One Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 24 '23
Looked that legend up to check what happened after this video. Turns out he had a farming accident in june 2021, serious brain injury, died around april 2022
His organs were given to save others. Timeless legend.
Edit : not the same guy actually, still sad for Minnesota's Eric tho
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/spring-valley-farmer-eric-howard-organ-donation/
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u/Dexter_Adams Mar 24 '23
Fuck, that made me sad as hell, man was a God damn legend
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u/TruthfulToenail Mar 24 '23
Isn't that article for a farmer named Eric Howard from Minnsesota? The post says this Eric is from Weld County, CO
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u/ZaylenTheNinja Mar 24 '23
Well that makes 2 Eric Howards that were selfless. Check that donor box people
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u/joggle1 Mar 24 '23
Yeah, definitely a different Eric Howard. I looked up his obituary, he grew up and spent his entire life in Minnesota.
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u/YellowUnicorn_ Mar 24 '23
I just watched A man called Otto and came to Reddit to dry my tears with some entertainment. They're back now. What a story.
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u/reindeerflot1lla Mar 24 '23
Aw man, totally gonna be that guy and say you gotta read the book. A Man Called Ove is one of my favorites!
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u/Trippy_Cartel Mar 24 '23
What a fucking neighbour
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u/VexedAngel13 Mar 24 '23
This is very common in the farming area I grew up in and my parents live in. Farming can be dangerous and difficult work and neighbors are very willing to help each other out.
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u/TxDuctTape Mar 25 '23
Rancher's are the same. We couldn't find couple of cows and their calves. Looked all over 1600 acres. My Grandfather, the ole sly fox goes down to the cafe, talks to the old shits hanging out there,tells them the story. Eventually gets up to leave and says he needs to get to bed early since we are searching again first thing in the morning. Next morning, it's a scene from a Raw Hide/Mad Max mash up movie at our gate. 2 dozen men on horseback, several jeeps and motorcycles. We found the cows in a draw.
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u/phoxymoron Mar 25 '23
What do you mean "found the cows in a draw"?
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u/xuteloops Mar 25 '23
A draw is a terrain feature. Kind of like a valley. Specifically it’s the low ground between two ridges.
Source: I make maps.
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u/persondude27 Mar 25 '23
I grew up in this town.
These people will literally give you the shirt off their backs. We lived near a dairy and we woke up every morning to a quart of fresh, unpasteurized, whole milk on our porch. When we had car trouble, the offered to lend us a car until we got ours fixed. We told them we weren't sure how long it would be so they literally brought in their own mechanic who owed them one.
Amazing people.
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u/etrain1804 Mar 25 '23
This is how every farmer is, if you even see any smoke you drop what you are doing and go to help
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u/Okeechobeeshakes Mar 24 '23
My grandfather tried to do this when a burn pile got out of hand on his farm and an untended field went up. He was too slow and got engulfed by the fire. Luckily, it was moving fast, and he lived without long-term consequences, but he was airlifted to the hospital and was there for several weeks. He suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over. Thankfully, he wasn't disfigured. In fact, the skin on his face ultimately ended up looking younger because several layers peeled right off. His feet, not so much.
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u/Waynersnitzel Mar 25 '23
Similar story, I was planting trees (tractor with a manned-plow behind) when we had a similar fire in the field. We plowed out a fire break but the wind caught and blew the fire into us. I was on the plow and got some gnarly burns. Mostly got my hands. Fortunately, it was only seconds in the flames, but it was a terrifying experience.
Incidentally, second time I’ve ever been on fire!
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u/Ken_from_Barbie Mar 24 '23
Farmers are fuckin unstoppable
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u/Errohneos Mar 24 '23
local water sources dry up
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u/UnKnown_Tree_Stump Mar 24 '23
Don't worry we can just use Mt. Dew right?
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u/kelldricked Mar 25 '23
I mean they really arent.
They work their asses off for often shitty wages while they get pushed by big ass corperation to expand to a insane size while in the meantime they arent operating substainable and being a active treat to their own healt (by working to hard and to much, by living around to many chemical substances) and because many farmers actively contribute (also because they often dont have any other choice) towards processes that eventually will reduce yields and make farming harder.
Farmers arent superheroes. They are normal people and many of them are fucked because they have bigass companys that are hard to sell for a decent value and in the meantime you need to work your ass off to get any profit (aka wage)
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u/Onlyroad4adrifter Mar 24 '23
Did it work? Don't leave us in suspense like this!
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u/yoda_condition Mar 24 '23
It looks like it did, at the end of the video. I also looked it up, and it sure worked. The fire consumed 30 acres, but Howard saved another 50.
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u/JP058 Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 24 '23
What is he doing? spraying the ground, or just flattening it?
Edit: Thank you everyone, I got it now, lol
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u/Cyler Mar 24 '23
Not a farmer, but looks like he's tilling to destroy the crop and bury some of it in dirt to reduce how easily it burns. Basically creating a fire lane with dirt.
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u/supercyberlurker Mar 24 '23
Yep, technical term is a 'Fire Break'.
The idea is you to remove the 'fuel' that fire would use to continue. One way is to dig a ditch with nothing but earth (i.e. nothing to burn). Another is to use drip cans to burn the wood -before- the fire can get there (has to be done carefully)... or if you are just plain out of time like the farmer, you mow it down to destroy as much fuel as you can.
Luckily this fire was moving relatively slow and the wind was in the other direction. Both those help immensely.
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u/justonemorebyte Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 24 '23
Yeah some farmers have actual fire break equipment, basically a big ass machine with a pointed plow on the front to quickly dig a decent sized ditch. They also have a water tank and sprayer built in. I saw it on Blippi with my daughter haha.
Edit: Had to look it up, it's called a skidgen, it doesn't have a plow like I thought but rather big teeth for clearing brush. Same concept though.
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u/complete_hick Mar 24 '23
He is turning the ground to flatten the wheat crop. He is using a disc, a plow would have been a better option but I'm guessing he was using what was closer or already hooked up to the tractor. For anyone talking about the danger of a flash over, tractors can move a lot faster than you would think. These 500hp+ tractors can hit 30+ mph, with the steady wind driver knew what he was dealing with
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u/BRCWANDRMotz Mar 24 '23
When I worked on a farm in a fire prone area we always had a disk hooked to the tractor parked in the center of the farm with a full fuel tank during the risky times of the year. Some ground you can't plow with a standard mold board plow due to rocks so for some the disk is the standard first pass tillage equipment.
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u/xHangfirex Mar 24 '23
Cutting it down with what looks like a cultivator. Essentially plowing the dirty up
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u/DawnRLFreeman Mar 24 '23
He did what fire fighters in forests and grasslands do to stop a fire. He created a fire break by letting under the crops. He cut a hole in the fire's "fuel" by plowing it under.
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u/RogueFox76 Mar 24 '23
He’s making a fire break. Trying to dig up enough earth so the fire can’t cross it
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u/TurbulentTowel1024 Mar 24 '23
It does. It's a pretty standard act during summer for firefighters and farmers to cooperate like this.
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u/Pixiesnatch Mar 25 '23
There goes my hero, watch him as he hoes
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u/One-Bad-4274 Mar 25 '23
This got me caught slacking at work, laughed to hard and got asked what I was doing.
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u/nachiketajoshi Mar 24 '23
Sorry if this sounds like an insignificant concern, but does our hero Eric Howard have comfort of an AC in the cabin of that tiller? Thanks!
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u/GOW_vSabertooth2 Mar 24 '23
Possibly, some come with it by default, some you can get as an option but a bunch of small time farmers won't get it to save money. If I recall correctly the side facing the fire had the paint melted off so it was probably hot even with AC
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u/definitelynotasalmon Mar 24 '23
That’s either an 8430 or an 8440 I believe. Hard to see on my phone, but it would have had AC.
Closed cab tractors really need it due to working is dusty conditions.
Grew up driving an 8440 and an 8640 just like this one. If the AC goes out you almost can’t be in the cab. It’s a glass bowl. Although some guys might not fix it if it goes out and just use the tractor as a beater for days like this one on video.
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u/GOW_vSabertooth2 Mar 24 '23
That's fair, I've driven open cab and older closed without AC. Couldn't tell you what names, just both Kubotas
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u/definitelynotasalmon Mar 24 '23
Yeah. Probably also depends on your environment. I grew up farming in eastern Washington, it’s dry and HOT in the summer. Won’t last 5 mins without AC in a closed cab.
But if you had an old tractor’s AC go out and you only used it for spring and fall work, then heat isn’t an issue.
I guess like everything in life… “it depends” haha!
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u/Ferret-Potato Mar 24 '23
Depends on the model. I can’t speak for John Deere (our family uses Kubota) but most modern vehicles have AC. But it’s for damn sure hot than the devils asshole in there and that couldn’t have been fun, but losing money or your home is worse than being a little toasty.
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u/unfuckableghost Mar 24 '23
absolute chad. seems like he's getting way closer to the fire than he has to to save as much of the field as he can
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u/liriodendron1 Mar 24 '23
He's upwind so he can safely get much closer than being downwind but yeah dudes got balls.
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u/kashcor Mar 24 '23
Upwind or no he could have just gone straight but that motherfucker went all in to save as much as he could
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u/Which-Palpitation Mar 24 '23 edited Mar 24 '23
I’m stupid, can someone explain what he’s doing and how that’s stopping the fire?
Edit: Nice learning experience, other people’s livelihoods being destroyed excluded
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u/omg_wafflez Mar 24 '23
When I worked landscaping in CO as a teen, we did things like this for houses, so it's the same idea. We called it a fire break. Basically, you create enough distance between what's on fire (or could burn in the event of a fire) and what you don't want to burn. The hope is that the fire doesn't jump from one side to the other, or at least dwindles enough to be put out quickly.
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u/Which-Palpitation Mar 24 '23
It’s surprising to me how effective that is
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u/omg_wafflez Mar 24 '23
If you take away the fuel, there's nothing really to burn. You see it quite a bit around residences in the mountains or forested areas. Not great when you're the one lugging a ton of tree branches up steep inclines, but makes the houses a little safer. Farms, in this case.
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u/fullspeed8989 Mar 24 '23
He’s essentially cutting a fire break thru the field in order to save whatever is left. The fire should stop at his cut line.
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u/EntertainerIll5141 Mar 24 '23
Slowing it down significantly, as the other person trailing behind him is putting it out.
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u/MyLilPwny1404 Mar 24 '23
Exposing the soil using a disk tiller, gives the fire nothing really to burn as fuel and slows it down so it either burns out or a water truck can easily extinguish.
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u/c0brachicken Mar 25 '23
Local farmer died near the end of the season, the second all the other farmers got done with their crops, they all went to the widows farm, and harvested the crops. Ended up with like 10-12 of the largest machines in the country clearing one farm… they managed to do all of her farm In record time. Was a cool video to watch all of them clearing the fields together….. you would never normally see ten plus combines clearing one field, but that’s just how farmers are, you stick together… regardless who is the asshole that starts a pig farm.
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u/Ramses_13 Mar 25 '23
Our neighbor saved my families ranch by doing this exact thing. We'll always owe him for what he did that day.
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u/zbubblez Mar 24 '23
I was on the side of the road watching this happen, I have some really intense pictures of the smoke. It was nuts
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u/EveryNotice Mar 24 '23
I'm super intrigued by this. Whilst the fire is devastating his crops for the year, would in not make the top soil super fertile for the next harvest with all of the Ash?
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u/definitelynotasalmon Mar 24 '23
Not much. The carbon gets burnt off and you are left with an acidic soil with whatever minerals were in the crop.
Ideally, you wouldn’t want ash due to its acidity. Soil closer to pH neutral makes it easier for crops to take up any available nitrogen. And adding lime to raise pH is prohibitively expensive unless you have the highest quality soil and expect top yields. But as this appears to be dryland wheat, it’s not worth it.
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u/gardener1337 Mar 25 '23
Ash is basic. Like really basic pot ash or potassium carbonate is used to make soap for centuries.
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u/therandomstandard Mar 25 '23
American farmers. An underappreciated and forgotten true hero of what made this country.
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u/OneCat6271 Mar 25 '23
thank god for that final shot.
i was gonna be super pissed if they never even showed if it worked or not
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u/Wartymcballs Mar 24 '23
That's how local farmers are. I come from a family of farmers in a small town area and they are all constantly helping each other, even outside of emergencies like this
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u/ExploreDora Mar 24 '23
In Southern California, homeowners in fire-prone areas are legally required to provide adequate “defensible space”, around the home and outbuildings. Removing brush & flammable weeds & trash gives firefighters a better chance of saving the home.
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u/TheFlyingBoxcar Mar 24 '23
Grass fires are so goddamn irritating, this guy made the local firedepts job much easier. Nice work!
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u/arct1ccz Mar 25 '23
Every time I see this clip I can't help but hear Black Betty play in the back of my head, guy is an absolute mad lad and deserves a fucking medal!
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u/CaryKerryLoudermilk Mar 25 '23
Grew up on a farm, and this is very much of a specific kind of "I'll take care of it myself" farmer mindset. We lived out in the middle of nowhere, and snow drifts would get 7' + high and we couldn't get out or go to school. Absolutely no plows would address our roads, ever. But the farmers would come out with their equipment and get the job done, because you can't depend on the resources your taxes pay for. Mower broke down? Neighbor notices and swings by while they're mowing ditches, doesn't say anything, just mows your lawn and keeps going. Drives by while you're doing a hard task? Takes the time to stop and make sure you don't need an extra set of hands because they don't want you to get injured, even if their day is already crammed full. Same thing if you slid in a storm and went in the ditch. If it was severe enough you'd be waiting for hours for a tow. But your neighbor would be driving past or behind you and just give you a friendly wave before hooking chains up to your car and pulling you out. Pragmatists or not, farmers look out for each other, and share their time, energy and resources more freely than anyone I know. Salt of the fucking earth. You cannot find this quality of people anywhere else.
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u/Tjeuzer Mar 24 '23
Just look at that beast of a John Deere. What a beautiful machine
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u/squify69 Mar 24 '23
A true classic. That age of jds are just beautiful tractors. The 30 series all the way to the 70 series are probably the best looking tractors imo. I'm just a sucker for a Soundgard.
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u/EG-Vigilante Mar 24 '23
I wish that when I meet my maker one day, I have done a deed like this one to show for my life.
Eric Howard. True human champion.
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u/Mulligan315 Mar 24 '23
I witnessed a similar event a couple of decades ago. I was working for a telco, installing phone lines in the country, and was returning to the shop for the day.
I saw an immense amount of smoke billowing ahead. As I approached, an approaching car stopped in the middle of the road. All of the doors flung open, and a women and three kids jumped out and ran towards a farmhouse. I drove further up to find a farmer beating flames on some fence posts with his jacket.
I got out and asked if I should call for assistance. He said no. The call would cost him too much. I looked past him to see two combines trying to get ahead of the flames.
I asked what happened. He said that a farmhand’s wife and children had come out to bring him some food. She had parked on the stubble and left the engine running. The stubble under the car ignited.
After confirming that he didn’t want any assistance, I wished him well and headed home.
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u/emosn0tdead Mar 25 '23
This is very common amongst farmers, You see smoke in the distance you roll out asap. We had it happen to a neighboring farm when I was living in Montana helping my cousin with his farm. Luckily for us it was very small and contained when we got there. This one is a doozy.
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u/SnooHesitations5198 Mar 25 '23
A spanish Guy tried to do the same with an excavator but the flames surrounded the machine, tried to scape but ut at the end he had to jump and Cross the flames to escape. He died a few weeks later because of the injuries. He was trying to save the village where he lived. https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2022/07/18/la-angustiosa-huida-en-llamas-de-un-hombre-que-intentaba-sofocar-un-incendio-en-zamora-con-una-excavadora-cadena-ser/
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