Is the smoke from burning Laurel dangerous?

On bonfire night we'll be burning one heck of a lot of laurel prunings – we reduced a 30 yard hedge on a boundary at our allotment site and the branches are now covering nearly all of our second – and as yet unsorted plot. On bonfire night we're going to burn it – looks like it'll be wet but that shouldn't be a problem once (if) we've got it going.

I've been told the flames from burning laurel can shoot out more than you'd normally expect and not to burn too much at once in case it becomes uncontrollable. Also, I know there's hydrogen cyanide in the leaves and I'm wondering about the smoke from a bonfire in the dark. I don't want for any of us to faint and fall into the fire..

I've checked out the web and found quite a bit saying it's the usual scaremongering but on a farmer's forum one chap says: In burning laurel leaves and wood, most of the cyanide breaks down - I've often burned laurel on a bonfire and never been able to smell cyanide. However, I still wouldn't light a bonfire of laurel upwind of livestock – any thoughts?

I can remember camping at Le Mans in the 80's for the 24hr motorbike races watching my mates race and battling with the French to see what good things could be chucked on the bonfires at night (initially to keep warm)...

The list went like this:

- any wood within the confines of the campsite (including huges trees)
- wooden french toilet block (that was so funny - in the morning there was just a concrete slab left with 4 'holes' in the ground). P*ssed a lot of people off, having no where for a morning Cr*p
- stacks of tyres from the go-kart track
- then someone discovered some Magnesium (I think from a engine casing). Lit campsite up like day. CRS Roit Police turned up but couldn't find the source of it once it went out.

But we (the Brits) won with the most ingenious addition to a bonfire :
- multiple unopened cans of heinz baked beans. Every tent within a 100yards got baked beans for breakfast.....!

Ah the days of a mispent youth....

Replies

David Cox November 3, 2010 at 5:51pm

I wouldnt worry too much if its been left for a while - The cyanades will have started to breakdown after a month or so, and to my knowledge it is destroyed by heat anyway, Mix it in with some chunky dry stuff, you must have a couple of pallets laying around, excellent for air circulation and heat - throw it all on and away you go!
pete November 3, 2010 at 8:55pm

I think it's as well to treat an open fire with respect - I can put my hand into a fire and know which bit will burn and which won't... it's amazing how many folk don't know about fires though – we took a nephew camping with us once as he was apparently getting a reputation for being a pyromaniac at school – I thought it would be good to show him how fires are for cooking and keeping you warm and for contemplating – he'd got no idea how to use even a hand axe, but then he was only young...
PRO

Gary RK November 3, 2010 at 9:16pm

I can remember camping at Le Mans in the 80's for the 24hr motorbike races watching my mates race and battling with the French to see what good things could be chucked on the bonfires at night (initially to keep warm)...

The list went like this:

- any wood within the confines of the campsite (including huges trees)
- wooden french toilet block (that was so funny - in the morning there was just a concrete slab left with 4 'holes' in the ground). P*ssed a lot of people off, having no where for a morning Cr*p
- stacks of tyres from the go-kart track
- then someone discovered some Magnesium (I think from a engine casing). Lit campsite up like day. CRS Roit Police turned up but couldn't find the source of it once it went out.

But we (the Brits) won with the most ingenious addition to a bonfire :
- multiple unopened cans of heinz baked beans. Every tent within a 100yards got baked beans for breakfast.....!

Ah the days of a mispent youth....
PRO

Gary RK November 3, 2010 at 9:24pm

What is it about fires - is it the primeval instinct coming thru ?
David Cox November 4, 2010 at 11:17am

When i was very young I burnt a hedge. Last winter I build a blast furnace and melted aluminium cans.
Fire? It is simply fun. Magical, simple, pure unadulterated natural energy. And it burns stuff.

Gary RK said:
What is it about fires - is it the primeval instinct coming thru ?
Lawncare-4u.co.uk November 4, 2010 at 6:39pm

it burns like 'billy-o when dry...........................