Africa Wild

:

Braai safety measures
The summer season comes with outdoor activities such as children playing in the pool or a nice afternoon braai, however, the City of Mbombela Local Municipality Emergency Services urged residents to be safe when using products to start a braai fire.
5 hours ago

The summer season comes with outdoor activities such as children playing in the pool or a nice afternoon braai, however, the City of Mbombela Local Municipality Emergency Services urged residents to be safe when using products to start a braai fire.

As many agents and products for starting braai fires are sold, many of them are unfamiliar or have not passed a quality assurance test at the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).

Many illegal gel substances are sold at a cheaper price from local markets or on the street.

“The danger of these cheap imitation products is that they probably use illegal substances that have a very high and dangerous flashpoint when you ignite them. This may cause burn wounds due to people using these agents without knowing the dangers,” said the metro council.

The Tshwane Emergency Services appealed to the community to buy products they were familiar with and were SABS approved.

“The compact solid commonly known as Firelighters is probably the safest due to the material used to produce it, and the flashpoint for ignition is not that high. The piece that you use to set it alight will start to burn slowly and heat will spread evenly throughout the product,” the council said.

The metro council provided the following safety tips:

- Make sure that you are familiar with the product and the safety measures to use it before you ignite a fire.

- Always store flammable agents in a dry, well-ventilated area.

- Check for expiry dates and the ingredients used to manufacture these products.

- Try not to inhale the fumes that are released when these products are opened.

- Use a lighter with a long handle to ignite the product to minimise burn wounds to your hands.

- Never allow your children to ignite barbecue fires. Keep them away from all fires.

- When you use a product that has a very strong smell, make sure that the product is approved and keep in mind that ignition might be very quick and dangerous due to the amount of burning fluid.

- Never use any flammable liquid to ignite a fire or to increase the heat of an existing fire. This includes petrol, paraffin, benzene and, in severe cases, aerosol cans, etc.

- Use as little as possible of the igniting agent to start a fire in order to minimise the risk of burn wounds.

- Never store flammable agents close to the barbecue or fireplace.

- If a person sustains burn wounds from open flames, get the patient to a medical facility as quickly as possible.

- If your clothes catch fire, STOP, DROP AND ROLL until the flames are extinguished.

- Never tear clothes off skin that has sustained burn wounds.

- Only use cold water to cool down a burn wound and transport the patient to a medical facility as quickly as possible.

- Keep a fire extinguisher close to your braai area or gas griller.

- Always keep emergency numbers close by and educate your children on the dangers of fire. Teach them not to play with it. Take the utmost care when you ignite fires and make sure to extinguish them before you leave the area.

https://lowvelder.co.za/463736/braai-safety-measures-2/

So, I got a "bee in my bonnet" and decided that I wanted to make a wood braai. (Only done it once or twice in SA, and never in the UK).

Went to my local garden centre and bought a bag of "kiln dried logs"

Set up a row of 3 on top of the lower grid. fire starters in between and then another layer of logs on top.
Lit it and it burned like mad. A bit too mad.
There was a lot of flame. For a long time. There wasn't a time when there was just glowing embers. Flame, and then ash. No in-between.

Was the wood rubbish?
Too much air flow from underneath?
Not enough wood used?

Any advice from the experts please

I would think it is a wood problem. You need a hard wood for good coals. Soft and semi soft woods (pine, etc) wont make coals that will last long enough. Think also more than 6 pieces of wood would be needed.

I see you can get mopane, sekelbos and kameeldoring wood in UK. Try source some of that wood.

RobertT wrote: ↑Wed May 22, 2019 4:56 pm I would think it is a wood problem. You need a hard wood for good coals. Soft and semi soft woods (pine, etc) wont make coals that will last long enough. Think also more than 6 pieces of wood would be needed.

I see you can get mopane, sekelbos and kameeldoring wood in UK. Try source some of that wood.

I have found a supplier that does SA wood.
£16 for a 20kg bag.
Rough guestimate - how many braais would I get out of that (just trying to cost it in my mind)

https://www.firewoodandlogs.co.uk/21-su ... i-firewood

Also found some Olive wood which is supposed to be good?
https://www.greenolivefirewood.co.uk/fi ... e-firewood
Thoughts on this??

Any heavy wood!

Richprins wrote: ↑Wed May 22, 2019 5:25 pm Any heavy wood!

RP - you think the Olive wood will be ok?
Says is dense on the website.

Problem with all of these is I have to order quite a lot to make the minimum order value.
And if it's no good......

I think olive wood is ok, but Robert is the spaghetti, so should know?

Reckon you could get 3-4 fires out of the 20kg bag. I haven’t come across olive wood, but it should be fine as it is also a slow grower. My preference would be the Mopani, then sekelbos. Hardwood also likes heat, so pieces should touch each other causing flames, otherwise it just smolders.