How to Set Fire to Leaves

Last Updated: January 18, 2018

Those dry, dead leaves can be a nuisance can't they? Every time you walk outside to get something they omit a crunch under your feet loud enough to wake the dead. Not only are they super annoying, when your shoes are wet they stick to them and end up all over your house. You could throw them away, you could glue them back on the tree but the quickest -and warmest!- way to get rid of them is to burn them.

Steps

1
Collect the leaves. There's no point trying to burn each and every leaf while it's still on the floor of your garden. Not only will it leave burnt leaves and ashes everywhere, it's very dangerous too. The fire can easily spread and burn your whole house down! To keep the fire safe and controlled, you need the leaves to be in one place. Use a rake or broom to sweep the leaves into one neat and tidy pile.
2
Put the leaves somewhere sensible. If you leave the leaves on the grass and burn them, the grass will obviously catch fire too. If you have a patio or a sheet of metal, put the pile of leaves on there. When they start burning, only the leaves will catch fire and nothing else. This means that the fire will be much more controlled and the risk of this going wrong is much lower.

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3
Prepare yourself for the fire. Before you throw a match into that annoying pile of leaves, you need to take some safety precautions.
- Firstly, remove any baggy clothing. This doesn't mean strip naked, it means remove a baggy jumper or coat that could catch fire. T-shirts and jeans usually don't catch fire but try to wear something well-fitting just to be safe. Any ties must be removed or tucked in. Tie back long hair.
- Keep a bucket of water nearby. Fill a large bucket with cold water in case something goes wrong and the fire needs to be put out quickly. More importantly, the bucket can be used if somebody else catches fire and needs to be saved. Alternatively, you can keep a garden hose nearby as long as the water can be turned on quickly.
4
Light the leaves. Although soaking the leaves in petrol and letting a cigarette fall from your mouth into them in slow motion sounds cool, it's actually pretty dangerous. Instead, light a small, but long, piece of wood and burn the leaves from a distance. You can also use a lighter that is quite long, not a small cigarette lighter. Light one or two leaves at first and let the fire spread. If the leaves aren't burning at all, add a small drop of white spirit into the pile. White spirit is highly flammable so only add a tiny bit.
5
Keep watch. Constantly supervise the fire while it's lit to make sure nothing goes wrong. If you go to bed and let it burn, you may be waking up to the sound of sirens and the fire brigade! If it's a cold night, warm your hands over the fire. Don't get too close as you can burn yourself, use your head. If it's a hot summers day, sit back with a sandwich or lemonade and enjoy the heat on your face. If the fire does spread to somewhere it's not supposed to go, use the bucket of water to put it all out and start the burning process. It may sound extreme but it's better than letting some of it still burn only to have the same thing happen again.
6
Safely put the fire out. When all the leaves are burnt, you may be left with a pile of ash that looks like it's gone out. To be safe, pour some water over it and then sweep the ashes up. Dispose of them by putting them into the bucket of water. This will help you be 100 percent sure that all of the fire has gone out. It will also make sure that your house and everybody inside it -including you- is 100 percent safe. Pour the bucket of ash and water down a drain once you're satisfied that the fire has gone out.

Warnings

Keep children and pets away from the fire or the lighters/matches.

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This might not work if the leaves are damp.

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