double whammie today

hl_tree

hl_tree

Location
New Fairfield, CT
A good friend of mine had 2 very close calls today.

This morning, he hitched up his 20 ton trailer to the 10 wheeler without the machine. Went to pick up his little excavator, and when going up the ramps, found out that he hadn't hitched up properly. The little claw that holds the pintle hook closed... it wasn't down all the way when he put the cotter pin in. So when force was applied to the top of the hitch, the trailer came up off the truck. Luckily, the chains kept the trailer from going anywhere. He spent at least an hour getting the trailer back on the truck, and taking apart the pintle in order to get the cotter pin out, and to get it put back together.

I wound up meeting up with him after that fiasco, and we went to drop a rotten oak spar. I ran my 066, and he ran his 394XP. This thing was pretty rotten, and when my friend started to cut up the log, it started to smoke. We thought nothing of a small amount of smoke, but within a few minutes there was quite a bit.. to the extent we had to walk away. Lucky for us, there was a WORKING garden hose on site, which just barely made it to the smoking log.
 
A guy I know cut down a very large Tulip Poplar. Part of it was very rotten and dry at the base.

He too got the wood smoking. (Exhaust and muffler on a normal running saw is 700 degrees if I remember correctly.)

He thought he beat it all out.

They put the logs on their log truck and drove on I-695 around Baltimore.

They looked in the mirror during rush-hour traffic to find they could not see anything behind them.

Total smoke.

The wind from the traveling truck got those little ambers going and a full fire inside the log.

they pulled over.

Firetrucks had to come.

fire company made them unload the logs and they hosed them down.

they may have been fined for it and maybe fined something to do with the water mess from needing it hosed down.

He worked for one of the larger tree companies in the US. I'll keep the name out of it.

they had to meet with some safty reps and big-wigs about "How can this be prevented from happening again".

come on, what are the chances...
 
The chances seem not to bad given two stories hear about the same thing. Better to have the meeting and come up with a plan to deal with it in the unlikely event that it would happen again then to have it happen again and you look like idiots when the fire marshall asks why it occurred twice to the same company.

We advance our knowledge by small steps.
 
If I am limbing a lot and I am working in a dry area I make sure I do not allow my 200T to lay flat. --That is, the bar flat with the ground. I'm afraid the hot muffler could start something on fire.

Especially up in the mountains where there are a lot of dry needles waiting to be torched.
ukliam2.gif
 
When I was an instructor we cut down a dead oak and the dead wood caught fire. We had to have the fire dept come and hose down the log. I've heard of others who have had this happen so keep in mind that it CAN and DOES happen!
 
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No smoking on my jobsites.

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Same here! I even offered my guy $1/hr to quit.
 
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Wow I wish my boss did that for me.

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Ill bet if you figured it out, you would save almost, if not, $1/hour by quitting. Say you smoke 1 pack/day. Thats $6/pack around here. Thats $0.75/hour you would save. More if you smoke more than a pack a day.
 
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