Burning wood that's been struck by lightning

It took me 30 minutes to find a forum to put this question on. I'm still not sure if this is the right place.

Hoping it is.

But we had alightning storm here a while back and several trees in the neighborhood have been killed by lightning strikes.

We were told by the guy who delivers our firewood, that

Wood that has been struck by lightning Won't burn.

I need to find out if this is true.

He says that he's tried burning it and says that it doesn't burn up, It's the worst kind of wood to burn in your stoves.

Is this true?

I have a stove in the greenhouse, shop and house. Free wood is hard to come by, and there's several trees here for the taking but have been very badly struck by lightning.

DH won't go get them because of what this guy has told us.

Is he nuts?

kathy

Somebody must be.
As long as the wood has dried it will burn.

sounds like a story for mythbusters! I would cut it down, dry it out, and enjoy the fires.

LOL I guess I'm not gonna tell him this, it may stir the pot LOL. But it's good to know,

wonder why the guy that delivers wood says that it won't burn.....

Well, we are going to have to cut the one down on our property cause it will fall on the greenhouse if we don't cut it down. but the one down the road, he doesn't want to cut down.

we'll just have to dry it out and see if it will burn. I'd like to say See I told you so. LOL

I think it depends on how much of it got burned by the lightning--if it was a small branch and the lightning blackened the whole thing, then it won't burn. But if it's a whole tree, then I have to imagine the vast majority of it will be fine, only part that won't burn is the blackened part where the lightning actually hit but in the case of a whole tree that's probably a pretty small percentage of the wood.

What kind of trees are they? Some trees, i.e. pine, shouldn't be burned at all. Creosote. But not burning at all. Hum sounds like a old wives tale. If that were true, there would constantly be trees laying around that people wouldn't want, wouldn't there?

Not my experience kathy_ann. I had a big pecan tree get hit a few years ago, and it was a doozy of a hit. Hired a tree expert to look at it, and he said it basically was a "cooked goose", and would slowly die over the next few years. He was right, in that some limbs died over the next few years, and when they did, I cut them off and used them for firewood and smoking chips. Never had a problem with them burning. In fact, I had to soak the chips in water to KEEP them from flaming. Believe you've got it figured out...if YOU were the wood supplier, what would you tell your customers? It's nonsense!

It was an oak. And we do use some pine, it burns hot, but we only use it in the shop or the greenhouse.

WE have used hickory too, I like the way it burns hot. and we've used cedar too. all in the shop and greenhouse, not in the house.

sounds like an old wives tale to me also. I used to raise chickens and game birds as a hobby and once had someone argue with me until they were almost blue in the face that all of the eggs from the center of the nest would produce roosters and the ones from the outer edge would all be hens.

It's pretty common knowledge among anyone who has ever raised chickens ,that every few hours or so the hen will stand and shuffle all of the eggs in the nest while incubating them. SO it shouldn't be that hard to understand that the same eggs will never be in the same spot all the time. Some people just have to always be right though!!!!!

Back to the wood. I would say once it dries that yes it will burn.

Pretty simple solution here, kathy_ann! Get the DH to cut down the tree, store all the wood separately, and YOU load the fireplace, alternating the "lightening infected" pieces with "non-infected" pieces in total batches. Trust me here, he'll spy on you on the loading---(being a man, it's what I would do if presented with this challenge)! Then try a fire with all "infected" pieces, a fire with "all non--infected" pieces, and a few "mixed batches". See if either of you can tell the difference...And there you will have "the truth"....

I'll have to try that.

And then report back here...

It will be a while, cause winter's over almost, we've been burning green wood but not lightning struck wood . I'll probably forget LOL

This is too entertaining, Folks! I'd get that wood in a heartbeat! (I'm hurting for firewood here!)

I think some folks used to think lightning-wood didn't burn cus they'd cut it up asap and think it was ready to go. Just becus a tree is struck doesn't mean it is cured and dried. I would cut down, split, and stack it just like any other tree.

(I also burn pine from time to time. It burns hot but if you use it when you are damping down your stove is when the creosote collects in your chimney, so for best use of it only use it when the fire is active, save the oak and other hardwoods for long/slow fires.)

Shoe

"I wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zig-zag?"

You know, Don't think us stupid or anything like that.


We've been cutting wood for years, and know that when you chop down a tree it's green and it won't burn like dried out wood will burn.

This is something I heard, and wanted to verify it ,

There's lots of wood to be had over here,

Kathy-ann...I feel I know ya, and you are definitely not stupid.

I'm glad you posted this topic as it is one of the many thoughts/"husband tales" that have gone on for years.

I hope ya'll go get that wood. (And get it before the local firewood supplier gets it!).

Shoe

I tried to get my DH to go chop that tree down, I think he's a little nervous about cutting that huge tree down, It's bigger than we thoght it was, My uncle who has chopped trees all his life was killed a few years ago cause a tree fell on him. Hard to believe. but It can happen, and I think it's one of the reasons why he won't cut it down. If it was already down, he'd probably go saw it up and bring it home. It's on someone's property in their yard too.

We have one of our own that has to be cut down in sections, and our wood supplier said he wouldn't cut that one down, it's too close to the Greenhouse and other things. So it still stands too LOL

Anyways. I thought it was an old wives tale too, Or should I say husbands tale LOL Like you say Shoe. I can't change his mind though.

I don't blame ya, or your hubby...I won't cut certain trees down either cus I'm afraid which they they choose to fall! Years ago I had a much more comfort in felling a tree, nowadays I'll get some help.

Shoe

You just never know where those big huge trees are gonna fall. some folks make it look easy LOL

he's probably gonna have to hire someone to cut that one in our yard down, and i'll be out there watching over them like a hawk so they don't damage my green house LOL