Small
Fire at Field
I just wanted to let
you know the lawn mower caught on fire
yesterday. (May 6)
Pat and his son Theo
were helping Doug mow the field when all
of a sudden smoke started billowing out
from the right side of the mower.
It appears as if the blade pulley
bearing got really hot and caught the
cut grass that had accumulated inside
the blade housing on fire. We were
quick to grab the fire extinguisher and
water bucket (although, the water bucket
is a 5 gallon gas container marked
water! Lol). We did not want to
extinguish the flames with the
extinguisher and have to pay for a new
one so we tested the “water” by smelling
it then doused the flames. It
looked really funny and we were all
laughing but it got the job done.
There is no burn mark on the field and
the flames were small and contained so
there was really no concern.
I am very proud of
our volunteer fire department (Myself,
Pat Willis, Chris McVey, Mike Lee and
Khoi) had it under control very quickly…
approx. 90 seconds.
What did we learn?
1.
We need to make sure the
bearing is ok and gets greased as per
maintenance instructions.
2.
We need to clean out the
blade housing from old grass prior or
after mowing.
3.
We need to replace the
gas can marked with water with a real
water jug. J
Theo was really
bummed his mowing experience was cut
short but handled it like a champ!
Mike
Winklepleck
Safety Coordinator
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