very close call w/house fire

[big bubba]

somewhere out there i have a lucky star...other night woke up @ 2:30 am, something wasn't right, weird smell. poked my head outside, yup, someone must be burning something. almost went back to bed, but did a house check....opened garage door, totally filled w/smoke. saw that a rag was smoldering (coals!) about to ignite. was resting against a bottle of stabil, and had containers of motor oil on above shelf.
the culprit? LINSEED OIL cloth i had used earlier that day. yes, i know linseed went through a heat when curing, but forgot & had tossed rag next to my mechanic rags earlier that day....within a few minutes everything would have ignited. THOSE WARNINGS ON LINSEED ARE REAL!!! take any soaked cloth outside & spread to dry.....who could have imagined an organic base oil would do it....i did but didn't think....something was watching over me!!!! thank you good fortune!

 

[sfloggie]

Bubba,

I am glad the Lord is with you and you have a sensitive nose. Best thing I could read first thing this morning.

Good weekend.

Jim

 

[PeterK]

Good lesson for all of us. I have a rag can but sometimes I'll leave a rag out if it isn't that dirty. No more. Thanks in advance for my good fortune.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Wow! You are very lucky!

 

[Stihlrunner]

After years as a volunteer fireman I am absolutely paranoid about oily rags. I have a rag can but usually end up throwing the rags out in the driveway to be thoroughly rained on! It's Oregon, so there is an abundance of rain most the year.

 

[treman]

I have had visions of similar things happening when I was re-wiring my cub. I had forgotten to disconnect the battery at one point and It had been discharging. lucky I remembered or the whole thing may have gone up. Don't know for sure but it sure made me nervous. It makes for a few sleepless nights following an incident like this. I'm glad to know it all worked out for the best however and that all is OK

 

[vwnotrunning]

Great to hear all is good. We all need yo be reminded of hazards! I know I tend to get lazy & absent minded.

 

[txdon]

The drying oils are the problem oils that can spontaneously ignite on rags. The oily rags of petroleum oils do not spontaneously ignite at ordinary temperatures, but they can if expose to hot temperatures or are use in combination with one of the drying oils. Of course the petroleum rags are a ready fuel for a source of ignition like a grinding or welding spark (or a discarded cigarette).

"Drying oils are commonly found in paints and varnishes due to their drying effects and they are the non-saturated oils found in vegetable and animal
products. Some examples include linseed oil, soya bean oil and tung oil. Saturated hydrocarbon oils such as those found in petroleum products are not susceptible to spontaneous heating at normal temperatures."
http://www.tcforensic.com.au/docs/uts/essay6.pdf

"The saturated hydrocarbon oils such as found in petroleum products are not subject to self-heating or spontaneous ignition at ordinary temperatures."
interFIRE, A site dedicated to improving fire investigation worldwide.

 

[creekbend]

I am sincerely glad that everything turned out positive.

 

[big bubba]

thanks to all listening....sometimes when i get caught up in my own gloomy thinking, a big pic (non) event like this makes me grateful!!

 

[Combustix]

Something most people don't even think about, glad to hear you caught it in time. I built a combustibles shed 100 feet from the house. Oily rags after being dried, gas, paint, and anything that would make the house disappear really quick is stored in there. Can be a pain at times, but at least I can sleep easier at night.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

For you guys who have a lot of oily rags around, $55 might buy you piece of mind:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Justrite-Galvanized-Safety-Gallons-Capacity/dp/B001DSKBXE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333320135&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Justrite 9100 Galvanized Steel Oily Waste Safety Can with Foot Lever, 6 Gallons Capacity, Red: Industrial & Scientific[/ame]

 

[Bird]

Yep, I once had a similar experience as big bubba, so I'm very particular with oily rags, regardless of type of oil. They are either spread out to get fully aired, or they're in a nearly airtight container. When I was repairing/rebuilding mechanics' air tools, I had a pretty ordinary small galvanized garbage can with a pretty tight fitting lid that oily rags went into until such time as I could burn them in my burn barrel.

 

[ditzel]

went to a fire call one time where rags and a can of oil based stain on a deck did the same thing. I guess those safety cans in shop class way back in high school were really there for a reason.

 

[Taylortractornut]

We had a fire like that at the landfill. It was a Friday and before lunch I got the compactor operator to pull off the lift and let me apply the six inch cover to most of the lift. There was a 40 yard can load of cabinet shop scraps there and I covered around it saving that load to mix with a paper load. Well another one of our trucks came in and dumped a load of strips and blocks form the same cabinet shop. We had our lunch and I had the compactor operator helping with a truck. I walked around the building and saw what looked like saw dust blowing off the load. I got the compactor operaotr to go back with me and when we got there the wind stopped blowing. and what looked like fine dust was smoke going straight up.; I walked over and looked and lifted up a section of rags that arent supposed top be dumped in the landfill. When I lifted it up it ignited with a whoosh.


I ran to the truck and got the 15 pound extinguisher about 50 feet away when I got back it was like peeing on a bonfire 80 yards of kiln dried wood scrap and paper on fire. The bad part about it was the pile that lit set the one that I had just covered around before dinner. THere was a 5 foot lift of rubbish under neath it that caught fire. I had to doze around it and cut down to the next cover lyer while that layer was on fire. The cabinet sho had a real big meeting Monday morning.

 

[Deano]

Great news! Fire scares the crap out of me!!!

 

[dodge man]

I adjusted the bands and change the fluid in the transmission in my truck this last weekend and had a lot of really oily rags. I originally just threw them in the trash, but realized this was a bad idea and burned them.

I redid the stock on a M1 Garand and read about it out the internet. There was a lot of warning about boiled linseed oil and the rags catching on fire.

While were talking about warnings, check your dryer vents. I once lived in a apartment building that the vent came off the back of the dryer. It was an electric dryer but it had a bunch of lint and socks behind the dryer. It started smoking really bad. The building had smoke detectors and fire extinguishers luckily. I came out with my fire extinguisher thinking I would look like an idiot, but flames were going up the back of the dryer and into the wall. That little extinguisher put it out. Total time from the smoke alarms going off to the thing catching on fire, less than one minute.

 

[Mike476]

Scary stuff, I have an old fridge that I keep all my petroleum pruducts in and have been meaning to get a proper cabinet, think I'll move that higher on my list of things to do. As far as oily rags, I've always kept them in a separate bin and burned them as soon as possible, not the best thing to do environmentally but dumped in a waste facility isn't either.

 

[big bubba]

if i'm not mistaken, dryer associated fires are the # 1 cause of house fires. check me on this

 

[txdon]

if i'm not mistaken, dryer associated fires are the # 1 cause of house fires. check me on this

"Cooking fires are the #1 cause of home fires and home fire injuries. Two-thirds (66%) of home cooking fire started with the ignition of food or other cooking materials.
Facts & figures

Cooking equipment fires are the leading cause of home structure fires and associated civilian injuries. These fires accounted for 42% of all reported home structure fires and 37% of home civilian injuries.
Cooking equipment was involved in two of every five (42%) reported home fires.
Unattended cooking was by far the leading contributing factor in these fires.
Clothing was the item first ignited in less than 1% of these fires, but these incidents accounted 14% of the cooking fire deaths.
Ranges accounted for the largest share (58%) of home cooking fire incidents. Ovens accounted for 16%.
Three of every five (58%) reported non-fatal home cooking fire injuries occurred when the victims tried to fight the fire themselves.
Frying poses the greatest risk of fire.
Thanksgiving is the peak day for home cooking fires."

source:NFPA :: Research :: Fire statistics :: Major causes of fire

Spontaneous combustion accounts for about 3000 fires a year.
http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/CombustionFactSheet.pdf