Smoke Inhalation

[Phil Lilley]

I had something happen this last week I've never had happened before.  I'm almost 68 and have burned a lot of leaves and brush in my day, inhaled a lot of smoke, this last week was different.

We moved 2 temp buildings on the grounds Monday.  Under the buildings had accumulated a bunch of leaves, all dry.  I didn't want to blow them in the lake so I decided to burn them.  Tuesday, I spread them out on the old boat ramp at OTR and lit one end.  Using a blower, I fanned the flames to make it burn faster.  Then Ryan pointed out that some of the embers were blowing towards our gas tank.  So I put the fire out.

That night my throat started to get sore.  Wednesday it went to my sinuses - I thought it was a head cold.  I had a slight cough.  Wednesday the cough got worse and worse to the point I was coughing uncontrollably... I thought I was going to rip something in my throat and/or chest.  My head was killing me too.

Marsha said several times.... may be it was the smoke from burning leaves.  "NO WAY".  I hardly remember smelling the smoke much less breathing in enough to do this!

I took a nap Wednesday late in the day and when I got up my chest was really sore.  When I coughed, it felt like someone was punching me.  It'd send me to my knees!  I started taking cough drops just so I'd have a break from it.

Marsha said, "go to urgent care?"  NO WAY!

Friday the cough was all but gone but my chest was still on fire.  So mid afternoon, we went to urgent care.  

The first thing the PA (Matt) asked, after hearing my issues, was "did I burn leaves?"  What!!  Did you talk to my wife???!!!  Turns out he had done the same thing a couple of weeks back.  His chicken coop caught on fire... I guess he has a big coop!  Lost about 300 chickens.  But inhaled a lot of smoke - and here's the kicker - burning chicken poop.  The fact that the cough went away so quickly was the key.  Gave me a prescription for steroids (which I've never taken before) and said to rest.

Come to find out Paul said he woke 2 raccoons up sleeping in the middle of those leaves early Tuesday morning when he came to work.  So it seems I got a very small whiff of burning coon poop that infected my lungs.

And yes I'm getting better.

[Quillback]

When I read the first part of your story, I was thinking there had to be something in those leaves to cause that cough.

There have been a lot of prescribed burns in Arkansas the last couple of weeks.  Last week they did a big burn in the Devil's Eyebrow natural area which is right by the Indian Creek arm on Beaver Lake.  I went fishing there the day after the burn and the Indian Creek cove was full of smoke, like a thick fog.  Decided then and there that I did not need to go back there and fish.

[dpitt]

Sorry you had to go through this, but thanks for the heads up. Glad you are on the mend. 

 

 

[jdmidwest]

Note to self, don't smoke coon crap!

[fishinwrench]

11 hours ago, Phil Lilley said:

 

Come to find out Paul said he woke 2 raccoons up sleeping in the middle of those leaves early Tuesday morning when he came to work.  So it seems I got a very small whiff of burning coon poop that infected my lungs

 

I don't know about racoons in particular.....but most critters don't poop where they sleep unless they don't have a choice.   So I wouldn't be so quick to blame it on smoldering coon crap.  Probably something else. 

[jdmidwest]

More likely it was poison ivy.  My sinuses and lungs jacked up this morning from salt spray at beach yesterday.

[BilletHead]

10 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

 

I don't know about racoons in particular.....but most critters don't poop where they sleep unless they don't have a choice.   So I wouldn't be so quick to blame it on smoldering coon crap.  Probably something else. 

                There are hundreds of abandoned barns coons call home in each county. They may not crap where they sleep but they don't go far from the sleeping area to do it. Like in just a few feet. They are nasty critters.  Ask @Terrierman. He used to hunt them with Jack Russels in barns and abandoned buildings. 

[Phil Lilley]

I've inhaled a lot of brush burn and leave burn smoke in my time.  Never had any issues... Never thought about avoiding is necessarily in the past.  I can't emphasize how little I did inhale the other day...  that's what I can't get over.  The area where the leaves were and where I burned them was 10 feet apart.  No vegetation either place- both had gravel underneath.  And there could have been mice, skunk, cat, armadillos or other animals living there the last few of years. Who knows.

[tjm]

Leaves don't burn completely and the smoke carries a lot of tiny solid particles, so that one good whiff could be enough to trigger an asthma attack or worse. They also, like burning any organic matter give off lots of   polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. It's also possible that poison ivy or other toxic leaves were collected there and of course the leaves had some mold on them and that is what I suspect you inhaled from the symptoms described. Although raccoons are pretty nasty critters, I'm not sure they are any more of a problem than the leaves themselves.

I don't know if 'coons mess in their dens or not, but I have observed den trees having six or more of them in the same hollow, and I have seen in the snow that over a four week time span that in one den only a single coon came out after the third week, went about three feet from the tree, pooped and returned to the tree; so they must either pee in the dens or be capable of holding it in for weeks. They will poop in the feed storage  bin that they are eating  out of. Anyone who has ever mucked out a barn knows that horses, cows, pigs, sheep, chickens ect. all poop where they sleep and I think the "most critters don't poop where they sleep"  wisdom is a Disneyism to support anthropomorphism. I can't recall ever seeing a nest or den that wasn't nasty. 

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

 

Woah, now there's a 300.00 word !   🎓 

I bet Phil's doctor couldn't even pull that one out 👍