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It sounds like the cigarette butts are the problem, not the pine straw. It seems like discarding a lit cigarette butt should be more than littering. What other litter can cause a fire?
Totally agree with you here. Someone through one out of their window the other day and it bounced up and hit my car. I was so pissed I had to compose myself. Do smokers that do that not give a crap about anything or anyone? If you want to smoke go ahead, but keep the butts in your car ash tray instead of making the outside world one big ash tray!
Last edited by Waterboy526; 03-31-2008 at 05:50 AM..
I think out here we just have a problem with littering. Something the drought and lack of inmate highway trash collectors this summer definitely shined a light on. Its just sickening driving down the highways now lately. People just don't give a darn.
While I understand the concern recently with pine straw, I have always used it as mulch. Many plants, native to NC, require acid, and pine straw provides it readily. The azaleas thrive with it on their roots.
Surprisingly enough, pine straw holds in considerable moisture, but you need to have several inches of the straw around your plants. I generally neaten-up the beds and put fresh straw out, as often as twice a year -- in the Spring, and again in the Fall. It is reasonably priced, breaks down easily, and is not unpleasant to work with. Many of my neighbors are using pine bark mulch, and until it 'settles-in,' it has a funky smell to it. I also think most of the bark I've seen some use is too coarse, for my taste, anyway.
In the 30+ years that I have owned a home, and maintained my own yard(s), I have always used pine straw, and never had a problem with it catching on fire. I know it happens, as evident by the mishaps around apartments and hotels, and it may be a bit risky to put it around your home if people will be smoking, and tossing out cigarettes. I would object to both -- smoking, and tossing cigarette butts.
In the 30+ years that I have owned a home, and maintained my own yard(s), I have always used pine straw, and never had a problem with it catching on fire. I know it happens, as evident by the mishaps around apartments and hotels, and it may be a bit risky to put it around your home if people will be smoking, and tossing out cigarettes. I would object to both -- smoking, and tossing cigarette butts.
I think this is a huge factor. Pine straw is probably just fine for people who actually maintain it and understand fire risks associated with it, thus being responsible. Having it around hotels, apartment complexes, office parks, etc. seems to be much more of a liability because the people frequenting these facilities may not realize the risks or even notice the pine straw at all, since it is not their property to have to maintain.
I'm not going to open the can of worms that is smoking and cigarette butts, but I'm with RDSLOTS on that one!
Is pine straw dangerous around homes and other buildings? Ask the employees at a Credit Union office in downtown Raleigh. About a year ago several cars were damaged when the exhaust pipe from one car ignited the pine straw mulch that surrounds the parking lot. At least one car was a total loss. The owner of the car tried to get compensation from the property owner that used the pine straw mulch around the parking lot, the driver of the car that backed into a parking space where his tail pipe touched the dry mulch, the landscape company that installed the mulch in an area where it could be ignited by a parked car. In the end, no one would accept responsibility for the mishap. Even after taking the case to a Wake County court, the owner of the destroyed car was left with no car, no cash, no help. Pine straw not dangerous? Maybe not, but I will be careful who I park near and will not put it around my home.
Not fire insurance. That is separate from collision. If you don't have a car loan you are not required to have comprehensive insurance for fire and theft.
A few years before we moved here, the bank I worked at had a load of hardwood mulch delivered to a branch one spring..........the pile of hardwood mulch combusted and burned the outside of the building before the fire department put it out. All kinds of mulch will catch fire..........just depends on what the accelerant is.
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Pine straw makes for good mulch here in NC
