I have some brush to clear but the weather is against me... even with dry weather it doesn't dry out enough to burn.
What is commonly used in such cases? I know some people use petrol (gas) but I also know how inflammable petrol is. I tried white spirit and it was most ineffective. Is there something better or a mixture I can use?
White spirit is fine for lighting a fire (it works better if you soak newspaper with it before lighting it) but if you have damp material, you need to get a fire going that has enough heat capacity to dry the material out to keep the fire going.
Gasoline and white spirit will only burn for a minute or two, which is not long enough.
Try cutting a few bucketfuls of small twigs and keeping them under cover (in a shed, or even in your house) for a few days to dry them. Use them to start the fire and pile the wet stuff on top.
Of course you will get lots of smoke and fumes from drying out the wet brush, but it will work. The bigger the pile of hot ash, the faster it will dry more wet stuff that you add to it.
If you have a huge amount to burn, in a few hours you can get a fire with enough heat in the base to stack it up with enough wet material to keep it going right through the night. It will smoulder rather than blaze, but it won't go out.
