A few times over the past few years, I’ve seen people drop a large bale of hay in someone’s yard and set it on fire as a prank (yes, out here in the sticks). The only way I’ve seen to put one out is to break up the entire thing while spraying it with water. Then you have a whole bale of hay spread over your yard, which you have to rake up and haul off. It seems next to impossible to put these things out while they are still intact. I’ve seen people soak them with a water hose for literally hours, only to have them flame back up the next day (they burn pretty much like a cigarette, smoldering in the center). I’ve even seen people insert the hose into the middle with the same result. How on earth can you put one out without making a mess of your yard?
How about dumping a lot of sand on it and smothering the flame?
Nope. You pretty much have to break it apart and soak the whole thing. Either that, or encase the bale in a CO2 environment for a few hours. 
The sand would probably work if you used a whole dump truck of it. Kind of defeats the purpose of not making a mess in the yard, though.
You talking about a round bale or a square bale?
Hose it down.
Put the bale in a metal trash can.
Put the lid on.
If you want to get fancy about it, you could toss in some baking soda and vinegar to displace the air in the can with CO[sub]2[/sub], rather than wait for the bale to rekindle and use up all the oxygen.
It’s a really stupid and dangerous stunt!
If the fire is not an immediate danger of spreading, I might wet a fairly wide area around the bale and let the material burn a while. Then some water and perhaps a wet blanket over the top.
Hehe, I’m talking about a round bale. Usually run about 5 feet tall around here. Won’t even come close to fitting in a trash can, nor can you pick one up (without a tractor). I guess a really big fire blanket might work if it was left on for a few days. I’m not sure where you’d find a 15’x15’ blanket, though.
A square bale of hay is rectangular and typically about three feet long and 18" in width and similar height. Around these parts of Texas a square bale will weigh close to a hundred pounds.
A round bale on the other hand is about 5’ in diameter and mat weigh between 800 to 1500 pounds depending on various factors. That is usually what ranchers use these days because it cuts down on the labor involved and requires little or no storage facilities. You’re not gonna put a burning square bale in a trash can I don’t think. You are definitely not gonna put a round bale in a trash can.
You could completelt soak a heavy blanket with water and smother a square bale. Maybe use some burlap sacks…and then haul it off real quick.
A round bale on the other hand is a pain in the ass to put out. I’ve seen hay yards full of round bales catch fire and burn for days. Smoulder for weeks…even.
If you’ve got a big canvas tarp…and only one bale you could soak it good and then cover the bale. Yeah I know that if it get’s too hot you might still fail but you have to cut off the oxygen. Several large foam fire extinguishers will do it but that ain’t exactly cheap.
If the fire isn’t in danger of spreading I’d say go get a keg of beer and wait. It’ll burn out overnight if you let it.
that’s what I thought…break out the tequila and beer and let’s BBQ something.
Ohhh, That kind of bale. :smack:
Maybe if you have a spare silo…
Leonard seriously…if I had one round bale in my yard and plenty of room. As you probably know a round bale is rolled.
I think I’d take a piece of pipe or steel rod and push it through the center of the round bale. Get somebody on each side and unroll the bale a little at a time. I’d have somebody keep it wet so it didn’t flame up and then reroll the hay (as I went along) into small “bales” that I could pitch into a trailer and haul it off.
What’dya think?
Hmm…that could work. It hasn’t happened to me so far, so hopefully I won’t need to try it. I’ll just be real nice to all the rednecks, hehe.
Maybe insert a perforated and capped pipe right into the center of the bale and blow an extinguishing agent through that? Kinda putting it out from the inside out?
better a bale of hay than a cross, wouldn’t ya say?
So, some asshole, with a few asshole friends has to load up a fifteen hundred pound object into a truck, drive over to your house, light that sucker on fire, and then dump it out of the back of the truck, all without being seen?
Sounds like a lot of work for a prank.
Tris
Well actually there’s a lot of trucks around here that have a hydraulic hay fork on the back for feeding cattle with. You just back up to the bale and spear it with the fork then hit a remote and it tilts the hay over so you can drive it to where the cattle are. Then just set it down and drive off. A little charcoal starter or deisel…etc. It doesn’t take but a few seconds and since there are a lot of trucks running around with hay on the back during hay season and winter feed.
Plus understand it’s not like we all live in a housing development.
also…where I live most folks are gonna have their own hay anyway. You don’t have to bring your own.
That’s not a prank done here much. It might just get somebody shot.
About the only time I’ve ever seen this crap pulled is after Halloween. Folks will take a round bale of hay and paint it orange and then paint a black Jack O’ Lantern on it. Looks like a HUGE pumpkin in the yard, usually too close to the road.
Then some smartass will drive by and flip a cigarette on it while passing.
What if it was several bales of hay in the shape of a cross?
You’re forgetting, there’s not a whole lot to do in small town, Texas. It’s usually done when people aren’t home, too.
I haven’t seen it done to anyone that has their own hay. People that don’t have hay usually don’t know how hard it is to put it out. They spend days spraying down until it goes out, only to have it burning again in the morning. Then, the fact that they wetted it keeps it from just burning up real fast. I’ve seen them smolder in someone’s yard for over a week when they won’t just break it up.
BTW this isn’t really common around here, but it happens from time to time. And yes, it’s something that might get one shot.