On 27 Jan, 20:01, "george [dicegeorge]"
wrote:

What's leylandii like as a fuel (open fire, and/or wood burner)?

geat for bonfires, even when freshly cut,

I'll tell you a tale about that.

I felled 6 leylandii whilst on leave once. The day I was supposed to
be rejoining the ship I spent the morning burning the last of the
branches. I was in a hurry, and threw a big pile on the fire, from
which the volatiles were obviously evaporating. I then threw a second
bundle on, which disturbed the equilibrium and caused the vapour to
ignite. There was a huge fireball - a flash burn - that lasted a
second or so, and when it was over my glasses were irretrevabley
frosted and all my hair and beard had burned off. I was otherwise
unharmed, although the smell of burning hair inside my nose persisted
for a week.

I had to go straight to the ship with a slightly pink face and no hair
of any sort.