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In a spot of dry humor, El Reg has a story up on how the Government of Ridgefield, CT, attempted to remedy a damp baseball field in preparation for a high school game by lighting it on fire with gasoline.
In what could be understatement of the week, a Connecticut town has admitted that "a poor decision was made" when 24 gallons (109 litres) of petrol were poured on a baseball field and set on fire.
According to the town's Facebook page:
Town of Ridgefield, CT
on SaturdayThere as been an incident in town that we want [to] make citizens aware of. A RHS baseball game at Governor Park was delayed due to weather conditions on the field this morning. A poor decision was made (and being looked into by the RPD) to “dry the field quicker” and 24 gallons of gasoline was poured and set on fire. Thanks to the RFD, Peter Hill the Director of Public Works, DEEP, the RPD, and our Certified Spill Response Team for their incredible help. No one was injured and no one is in danger. The plan is to excavate the infield, place dirt in a safe container, and add fresh, clean soil to the field. We will update you as we know more.
Sadly for the players, it turns out that fire and grass did not work together as was apparently hoped and the game had to be held elsewhere. A later update on the town's page indicates
Town of Ridgefield, CT
on SaturdayAn update to the field fire situation. The field may be closed for the week due to the need for testing to be completed.
Comments on the page are everything you might expect and deserve your attention, for example one individual pointed out that he "would have added the use of a leaf blower to give the fire more oxygen."
Science!
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday April 10 2019, @07:06AM (1 child)
It seems pretty obvious to us that gasoline is a bad idea. Either it soaks in and doesn't burn and just contaminates things, or it does burn and kills the grass *and* contaminates things.
So what *would* be a good way to dry a field quickly? It's tempting to say "chorus line of idiots with blow-torches" (what could possibly go wrong), but the byproducts of combustion are actually quite wet so that probably just kills the grass long before it dries it.
What we need is a lot of moderately dry heat, so political speeches won't help either.
I'm thinking something like this might do the job. [zoro.com] It appears to have a stack that separates the combustion products from the airflow, so it should produce a reasonably dry heat; but the site doesn't say anything about that.
It does say that it has 174900 BTUs and can heat 8800 square feet. If you've got the time to do the field piecemeal or only care about the infield, that might be enough.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 10 2019, @10:36PM
Obvious solution is obvious: you only need to tilt the field so the water runs off the sides.