Soybeans spontaneously ignite - flooding Missouri.

[underpants]

I heard this on NPR this morning. So this pile of soybeans started rotting which creates heat and then the sunlight sparked a fire. I had no idea that could happen. NPR said this was new to some of the locals as well.

The area between the Missouri River and Interstate 29 around Phelps City, Missouri, remains flooded by an unplugged levee breach on the river. Local roads also remain underwater or were heavily damaged from floods that began in mid-March.

So far, only local railroad repair workers and law enforcement have been able to use Highway 136 leading into the facility.

An outdoor soybean pile, which appears far enough away to avoid damaging the rest of the grain elevator, began smoldering as temperatures rose in mid-July and became hotter as temperatures climbed to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit late last week.

"With the isolation of the facility due to floodwaters, it has been determined that the safest action is to let the fire burn itself out," said Patrick Burke, a marketing and communications manager with Gavilon. "We continue to monitor the situation and work with authorities to ensure the safety of our personnel and the surrounding area."




https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/article/2019/07/24/smoke-rolling-flood-isolated-gavilon

[Wounded Bear]

1. Happens to almost any pile of organic material...

Hell it'll happen to haystacks. They get wet, which soaks into the interior. Get hot days, the temp rises, bacteria starts eating the plant matter. Runaway heat, pile burst into flame.

[underpants]

3. I have learned something today

Thanks

[Quackers]

7. We lost a new barn to this when I was a kid.

It was full of square bales and it only took one. The fire department had to keep coming out over the next month due to the fire reigniting itself.

[Wounded Bear]

8. Yeah, if you bale it wet, it can be a problem...

especially in confined spaces. The principle is fairly simple, really. It's one reason you don't see a lot of bales anymore, and why they wrap the hay into those big rolls. Have to keep it dry.

[jcgoldie]

14. The hay has to be dry whichever size and shape you bale it

...the reason we use the big rolls is because they are much less labor intensive. It doesn't take five guys doing manual labor to put up hay, just one with a tractor. Much quicker and easier to feed in the winter as well. But those large rounds will catch fire just as easy if they are rolled up wet. I have seen them smoldering in my hay shed before and I drug em all out to avoid a fire.

[Wounded Bear]

15. I guess I wasn't too clear...I was talking more about the plastic wrap, not the size

I understand all the labor instensive nature of the old way of hay baling. Hell, my brothers used to work at the local dairies, humping the bales, either out of the field to the truck to the barn, or off of the trucks of the stuff trucked in. I never did, I guess because I saw it done and never wanted to do it.

And yeah, one of those big rolls, wet and wrapped in plastic is a bit of a time bomb. It's why they let the hay dry in the fields before they bale or roll or whatever.

[jcgoldie]

17. For some reason believe it or not they are usually not a problem if they get wet after baling

... perhaps an organic chemist could explain it, but as long as you roll them dry they tend to be fine (you still wouldnt wanna stack em wet in a barn). The plastic wrap is actually more of a hay saving device. If you store them outside you lose a large percentage to the elements. You will lose 6" thick on the top and sides from rain and sometimes even more on bottom due to rot from moisture coming up out of the ground. On a round bale that's 5' in diameter that can easily add up to over 40% waste if you don't cover them somehow.

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. Thanks, Trump!

What will happen to this years crop?

[MineralMan]

4. It's like oily rags. Self-combustion happens.

It's not a very common occurrence, but it happens.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Like I replied in reply #1 above, it's more common than you might think...

It's one reason why you have to keep turning your compost pile. It's not just the smell, it's the possibility of fire.

The mid-west is ripe for this to happen, when you get spring/summer rains followed by hot sunny days.

[MineralMan]

6. You're right.

I remember a smoking pile of grass clippings at my high school.

[underpants]

12. 😁

[Recursion]

9. It's why grain silos explode

Big stacks of carbohydrates are dangerous

[roamer65]

20. Especially when in dust form and are aerosolized.

Right on par with ANFO.

ANFO is Ammonium Nitrate/Fuel oil.

[Maru Kitteh]

22. Well, no actually. It isn't.

Grain silos explode because large volumes of grain dust floating in the air of those contained spaces are ignited by an outside source/spark or buildup of static electricity. A requisite amount of small combustible material with large surface area floating through the optimal amount of air in a contained space + ignition source? Explosion.

This is very different in almost every single fashion other than it involves the combustion of what we normally consider foodstuffs.

These soybeans rotting on the ground are in an open space. They have become basically a big pile of composting waste. Composting piles catch fire rather commonly when not properly moist or turned. This is not an explosion. It is a slow smouldering that can eventually turn into an open burn.

[Kurt V.]

10. Like mulch, always round off the top of the pile. Leaving it in an

Inverted cone shape greatly increases the chance it will ignite.

[abqtommy]

11. When I was living in South Dakota some years back I asked what a large mound

of soybeans was worth. I was told "around 5 million dollars". (that was pre-tRUMP) Any way you look at it, it's a lot of work and money going up in smoke when it burns.

I worked on a dairy farm when I was younger and I learned that nobody puts wet/damp hay in their barn unless they want the barn to burn down.

[jcgoldie]

13. spontaneous combustion

The moisture causes it. A lot of farmers have lost a barn due to baling hay thats not completely dry and then piling it in the barn. Its the same reason you can see manure piles smoldering in the feedlot.

[brooklynite]

16. So no candidate should get to many votes at the Minnesota State Fair straw poll?

[Totally Tunsie]

18. Our garden mulch did the same.

I received a phone call from a neighbor saying that there was smoke coming from the back of our house. It turned out to be smoldering mulch about to burst into fame...would have taken down the whole house!

[Blue_true]

21. When I was a teenager, I was taught to occasionally turn compost heaps.

The main reason was to release heat from the interior of the heap.

[Stuart G]

19. k and r.. for exposure.

[womanofthehills]

23. That's a whole bunch of GMO, Roundup soy - no loss

People and animals will be healthier for not eating it.