Boneyard
Boneyard turns up in 2 fields: brewing, fire & safety. Here is what it means to the people in each one.
Boneyard in brewing
An outdoor storage area where decommissioned equipment and spare parts are kept.
A designated scrap area at a brewery or processing plant where retired machinery, broken pumps, and old tanks are stored. Maintenance crews use this area to scavenge for replacement parts, cannibalizing old units to keep active lines running without ordering new components.
"That old centrifugal pump finally seized, so go see if you can pull a working impeller off the one out in the boneyard."
Boneyard in fire & safety
A cleared area scraped down to mineral soil for safely dumping smoldering debris.
In wildland firefighting, a boneyard is a designated patch of ground scraped completely bare of organic material down to the mineral soil. Crews use this sterile zone to dump and isolate smoldering roots, stumps, and heavy fuels found during mop-up operations. Moving hot material into a boneyard ensures it can burn itself out without igniting adjacent unburned vegetation.
"Drag those smoking roots over to the boneyard so they don't flare up behind us."