# blue green flames



## tnflatbed (Feb 14, 2017)

So I've burnt wood exclusively for heat for the past 13 years and every now and then you will see a bright blue green flame, but I loaded the stove with a mixed armload earlier today and was rewarded with the most bright aqua colored flames that lasted for over an hour. Have you guys seen this out of one particular type of wood or is it more the minerals in the wood? Ive never seen that quantity or duration of colorful flames so it caught my attention. The pic doesn't do it justice, it had been going for probably 30 mins when I snapped a pic with my phone.


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## harpersend (Feb 14, 2017)

Cherry?


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## tnflatbed (Feb 14, 2017)

I didn't pay attention to what I threw in the stove but I do have some cherry in the woodpile.


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## farmer steve (Feb 14, 2017)

ya burning any walnut? i don't know the exact reason but walnut seems to produce those colors. i have a few customers that like burning it in their fireplaces.


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## Chris-PA (Feb 14, 2017)

Maybe it was something you ate?


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## svk (Feb 14, 2017)

I've seen this happen most often with maple. It's just some element present in the wood that causes those flames.


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## Jakers (Feb 14, 2017)

copper sulfate is usually the element that causes green flames. im guessing you have copper in the soil around where the trees were cut.


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## capetrees (Feb 14, 2017)

or copper jacketed bullets


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## zogger (Feb 14, 2017)

capetrees said:


> or copper jacketed bullets


I was just thinking that!


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## capetrees (Feb 14, 2017)

https://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/AstronNotes/Blue and Green Flames.html

probably more like ....


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## tnflatbed (Feb 14, 2017)

Thanks for the replies, I was thinking it was some type of element/mineral in the wood. I have been trying to clean up old wood pile so maybe its something from laying on the ground. I had never seen it do it for that length of time.


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## SS396driver (Feb 16, 2017)

capetrees said:


> or copper jacketed bullets


 happens a lot around here prime hunting lands

I have seen the green blue flames from time to time. Believe this is from the 1911


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## svk (Feb 16, 2017)

I have a few trees at the hunting cabin like that


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## blades (Feb 16, 2017)

Heck In the city they houses like that- Chicago comes to mind


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## Fireaxman (Feb 19, 2017)

The "Copper" (from various sources) explanation is probably the right one for a boiler fire with just an armload or two of wood, but I frequently get blue and blue-green flames from my largest, hotest bonfires towards the end of the evening. It is my theory that some of the un-burned wood on the bottom of the stack gets buried under ash from the wood above it before it is fully burned. It then is "Destructively Distilled", reduced by heat in the absence of oxygen, liberating comparatively pure unburned hydrogen, which ignites with a blue "Gas" flame as it ascends into the oxygen rich inspiratory zone of the fire. Hydrogen gas with the right mix of oxygen burns with a blue flame. That blue flame comingles with the yellow flame of the rest of the fire. Mix blue and yellow and you get green. I have duplicated this effect by burying a piece of live oak under hot coals, then building a good hot open fire on top of it. Did you by any chance or accident bury some un-burned wood under hot coals before you added your next load of fresh wood?

Regardless, don't have to understand it to enjoy it! Aint it purty? Just tried to understand it so I could make it happen more often. Visiting my sister in California last week I built some fires for her family. She had some pine cones she had purchased on-line for the occasion that were coated with copper sulfate. They produced an effect very similar to what I see in the late stages of my biggest bonfires.


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## sb47 (Feb 20, 2017)

At Christmas I like to throw in some ceder for some colorful displays. Not much heat and it don't last long but it sure is pretty!


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## SierraWoodsman (Feb 20, 2017)

I also see this green/dark purple colors with Russian olive wood. 


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