Is Mulch A Fire Hazard? How To Stay Safe

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I have had my fair share of mulch in the last few years. And while it has had significant effects on my gardening and landscaping activities, it has its downside. Due to this, I decided to research just how much of a fire hazard they can be.

Well, your fears are founded. Mulch is flammable and might be very challenging to extinguish as soon as it ignites. As such, it’s essential to maintain safety precautions to prevent a fire outbreak. For example, you might need to reduce the proximity of your mulches to physical structures and then wet them during the dry season.

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However, while mulch is flammable, the degree of fire risk depends on the type of mulch. For example, mulches that generally have increased oil content ignite easily and faster than others. Also, some mulches are more likely to ignite when exposed to certain materials.

As such, it’s necessary to have a good idea of your mulch type and its risk propensity.

Does Mulch Pose A Risk of Fire Hazard?

The fact is that mulch poses a risk of fire hazard. And it catches fire when it’s hot to a certain degree.

Mulch releases embers that fly around and lands on various surfaces, and when the new location is naturally combustible – for example, dry leaves or dry grass – a new fire starts.

Also, the fire risks vary based on the mulch type and how you arrange it. However, generally, critical findings on the fire risk of mulches suggest the following.

• Mulches are generally combustible during dry seasons.

• Pine needles and shredded rubber has the highest risk of a fire hazard.

• When applied in a single layer, Tahoe and compost wood chips have the least risk of a fire hazard.

• Shredded rubber mulch burns at an average highest temperature of over 380^o F. It produces the highest flame heights at an average of more than 3 feet when placed four inches over the mulch floor. It also ignited faster and burned for a more extended period.

Also, evaluating the potential of mulches to catch fire, the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension carried out the research. Here’s the result.

Mulch Type	Description	Fire Potential (Average maximum flame height)	Fire Potential (Average maximum rate of spread)	Fire Potential (Average maximum temperature 4 inches over the bed)
Composted Wood Chips	Wood chips were placed at a depth of 2- to 3-inches. And it was composted for eight weeks utilizing a proprietary process.	40	37	35
Medium Pine Bark Nuggets	It was placed at a depth of 2- to 3-inches. And it consisted – of 75% – pine bark parts with a diameter of almost 1 inch.	120	60	52
Pine Needles	Pine needles were placed at a depth of 2- to 3-inches. And it consisted of between 80 and 90% of pine trees, and the remaining 10 to 20% consisted of leaves, wood chips, cone scales, and twigs.	205	155	60
Shredded Rubber	Shredded Rubber was placed at a depth of 2- to 3-inches. And it consisted of 100% recycled, dyed, and refined rubber to imitate redwood mulch.	225	125	100
Shredded Western Red Cedar	It was placed at a depth of 2- to 3-inches. And it was manufactured from red cedar – western – and 5% wood chips.	190	165	60
Tahoe Chips	It was placed at a depth of 2- to 3-inches. It comprises wood chips, pine needles, plant biomass, and bark. However, their texture and shape weren’t uniform.	115	75	60
Tahoe Chips with fire retardant	It was placed at a depth of 2- to 3-inches. It comprises wood chips, pine needles, plant biomass, and bark. However, it was sprayed with a fire retardant/wood colorant solution. And it was sprayed at the rate of 1.25 gallons per 50 square feet.	90	52	52
Tahoe Chips (single layer)	Tahoe Chips were placed using a one-layer depth. And this layer provides between 80 and 100% floor cover. Generally, it consists of wood chips, pine needles, plant biomass, and bark.	52	38	30

Without a doubt, it’s clear that mulches pose a fire hazard regardless of your choice of mulch. And the only difference is that while some pose a higher risk, others pose a lower risk.

How to Stay Safe and Prevent Fire Outbreaks from Mulch?

Although mulches create a risk of fire hazard, you can reduce this risk to the barest minimum. And this is particularly necessary since mulches are essential to our gardening and landscaping activities.

So, the following safety precautions are helpful to stay safe and reduce the risk or prevent fire outbreaks from mulches.

1. Use Mulches That Are Less Prone to Ignition to avoid fire

One of the best ways to stay safe is to use less flammable mulches. And this is because since they are less likely to ignite themselves, you can avoid fire outbreaks.

As such, it’s best to use composted wood chips in residential areas, for they have reduced combustibility.

Woodchips are known to be more prominent in size and bulkier than mulch. And has many benefits in both gardening and landscaping practices. A comparison of both advantages and disadvantages is detailed in this article that I wrote on mulch vs.. wood, which you can check through this link.

Also, you don’t need to worry about a corresponding price increase. So, composted wood chips are pretty much readily accessible. Still, they are combustible, so ensure you apply ignition-resistant items between them.

2. Arrange Your Mulch Strategically to avoid fire

Another thing to note is arranging your mulch strategically and thus reducing its risk of fire hazards. For instance, spreading your mulch as a thin layer minimizes the likelihood of heat. As such, apply your mulch with a thickness between 2 and 10 centimeters.

Also, as stated above, some mulches are more flammable than others, and it can be pretty dangerous to arrange them continuously.

In this instance, the best bet is to separate highly combustible mulches by placing ignition-resistant items. This way, in the case of ignition, the possibility of fire spread can be reduced.

3. Maintain Effective Distance with Combustible Materials to prevent fire

As already stated, when hot or after igniting, mulches may fly around as embers. And in turn, when it lands on combustible materials, it creates a new fire. To reduce the risk of a fire outbreak, it’s better to ensure that no combustible material is around. This way, your mulch’s embers will not result in more fire.

To ensure that the mulches will not catch a new fire and further damage your property, there must be a distance of 18 to 30 feet between your landscape mulch area and the nearest combustible materials.

Pay special attention to electrical devices like decorative lights.

4. Avoid Using Mulches Near Your House to avoid fire

Another critical way to stay safe is to ensure your property is far from your mulches. This is important because it’s risky to want your garden close to your house.

Keeping your mulch too close to your property increases the risk of a full-fledged fire outbreak. And this is thanks to the destructive capacity of mulch embers. Ensure your property is also at least 30 feet away from your mulch.

However, in case you have mulches close by, ensure they are ignition-resistant and non-combustible mulches. For instance, well-irrigated plant materials and nicely maintained flowers and lawns might do the trick.

5. One way to prevent fire is to keep Your Mulch beds moist

To ensure your safety from a fire outbreak, keeping your mulch beds wet is vital. And this is particularly relevant during the dry season. This is because this period increases the likelihood of your mulch igniting.

As such, regularly water your mulches to prevent fire outbreaks.

The use of an irrigation system is generally a great idea. This way, you can effectively keep the area wet.

6. Maintain Surveillance on your mulch to avoid fire

Another consistent routine to stay safe is to maintain proper surveillance of your mulches. And this is particularly relevant in the period when the rainfall is below average or the temperature is warm. This is because your mulches are more likely to ignite during this period.

Through regular surveillance, you can tell when they get hot, and make sure to get them moist during those instances. Also, in cases where they ignite, you can promptly put them off before they spread to other parts of the house and cause absolute destruction.

7. Avoid Discarding Smoking Materials on Mulches to avoid fire

The negligent dropping of smoking materials on mulches has contributed its fair share to recent fire outbreaks. And this is primarily due to various smoking policies prohibiting smoking within facilities.

To reduce the risk of fire outbreaks, avoid dropping your smoking materials on mulches and instead utilize receptacles to discard your cigars or cigarettes.

Also, where necessary, ensure that proper trash cans are available close to your mulch area. This way, you can reduce the risk of outsiders dropping smoking materials on your mulch.

8. Store Mulch Properly to lessen fire hazards

It can be dangerous to store or pile mulch, especially for a long time. Ensure that they are always appropriately stored and avoid having high piles.

Constantly reduce the height of the mulch collection and break the pile into smaller piles.

Also, avoid placing the piles under the sun directly, and this increases the heat buildup within the bank, which increases the possibility of ignition.

What Are Mulch Fires?

The United States of America records over a thousand mulch fires each year. And this is more prominent during the warm or dry season.

Generally, it involves a situation where mulches ignite or catch fire for different reasons. These fires can either be small or big. In cases where it’s small, you can quickly put it out. However, in instances where it’s big, it can be pretty daunting.

In significant mulch fire cases, it becomes a public concern as it may extend to structures and houses and threaten human life.

Big mulch fires also result in the loss of thousands of dollars. For instance, there is existing legislation in some states that require mulches to be a minimum of 18 inches far from buildings.

What Are the Risk Factors That Causes Spontaneous Combustion?

As stated throughout this post, mulch is generally flammable and may ignite. However, certain factors increase the risk or cause spontaneous combustion. They include:

Factors that increase the risk of spontaneous combustion	External factors that may result in your mulch catching fire
Mulch piles of more than 20 feet	Careless use of cigarettes or cigars
Dry mulch piles – between 20 and 40% moisture	LIghtening
Static piles which remain unmoved for months	Arson
Dry weather conditions	Wildfires
Feedstock materials with oil and resins	Improper procedures, for example, welding sparks from equipment repair close to a mulch pile.

It is best to always be on the look for this factor to prevent accidental fires.

How an Ignition of mulch Occurs?

You might be wondering why mulches pose a fire risk. And although it appears complicated, it’s pretty simple and occurs in a somewhat step-by-step process.

This process begins with the mulch pile heated up due to microbial activities. As microbes decompose organic materials, heat is produced and lost.

Extreme cases that cause mulch fire

However, in cases of extreme external heat, due to the weather or the pile’s size, it becomes hard for the pile to lose heat quickly. And as such, it retains more heat, which increases its temperature. When this process continues unhindered, the temperature rises until it reaches a dangerous stage.

Now when the temperature reaches about 180⁰ F, there’s a stop to microbial activities. And in its place, abiotic processes take over.

Precisely, decomposition is done without oxygen and through heat. And then, since the compounds involved in this process are highly flammable, the introduction of oxygen causes an ignition.

How to Fight Mulch Fire to Prevent Spread?

Although it’s best to avoid ignition in your mulches, it is impossible to rule it out, and it becomes crucial to put it out as soon as possible to prevent further spread in such cases. And to do this, specific points are vital.

First, it’s crucial to have planned ahead of time. And this is because fires, although unwanted, are a common occurrence. As such, ensure you understand your fire department before its event.

In any case, water application to the pile’s surface while also opening the mulch pile collection is an effective strategy for putting out the fire.

When utilizing this technique, ensure you have applied water to the surface of the pile before opening it up. This is because opening the pile introduces fresh oxygen, and its introduction can result in an increased spread of fire across the mulch.

Also, vast amounts of water might be ineffective in most instances. As such, apply the water selectively and in hotter locations. You can also use chemicals that suppress a fire, for example, foams.

FAQs

Conclusion on mulch being a fire hazard.

We would never want our properties and gardens ruined by a mulch fire. Not only is it a traumatic experience to us, our neighbors, and most possibly our lawns and gardens, but it also causes so much destruction of our garden’s original state and the loss of money we put into fostering our spaces.

That is why it is always best to keep a watchful eye on our mulch piles. Take care to constantly wet it, especially in hotter climates, and keep it away from your flammable properties. Also, make sure to keep it away from your barns and our poultry spaces so that it won’t cause possible harm to your animals and livestock.

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