Spontaneous combustion is not a myth!

Let that be a warning, it can happen to you too, dispose of oily rags properly or hang them out.

Hobart's historic Shipwright's Arms Hotel evacuated after fire sparked by oily towels in dryer - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

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Hardly the mythical spontaneous combustion when you add a source of heat.

Ask mushroom farmers about spontaneous combustion!! I have worked at a couple. Its a fine line between fire and composted material!!!

Spontaneous combustion is no myth. Oils are oils/liquids at room temperature because the carbon atoms are joined to eachother with double, not single, bonds.
1. Oxygen can weasel into those, crack them and energy is released. We have weasels, you don't.
2. For every 10C rise in temp, the speed of this doubles in a runaway reaction chain.

Certainly no myth, nor is it only finishing or drying oils that are prone to spontaneous combustion. But placing oily towels / rags in a dryer??

I know of three Queenslander restorations in Townsville in the past two decades that were seriously damaged or lost to fire - the cause - spontaneous combustion of rags used to apply or clean up finishing oils used in the restoration. A good mate is a very senior firefighter with the QFS and confirms that there are many fires attributed to spontaneous combustion of finishing oil soaked rags.

This event may be of interest as poor housekeeping, lack of maintenance, inappropriate facilities, poor training, poor safety compliance etc, tragically lead to a fire fighter being seriously injured in a furniture factory fire at Yarraville Vic in 2007.

"In the case of Yarraville, MFB firefighters were confronted with an extraordinary fire at a furniture factory in Yarraville. The cause of the fire was a spontaneous ignition because of a chemical build up in the spray room. This was due to poor housekeeping and the exhaust extraction systems not maintained or cleaned."

https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/im...rt_Extract.pdf

https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/im..._documents.pdf

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Originally Posted by Picko

Hardly the mythical spontaneous combustion when you add a source of heat.

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another aspect to the "myth"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i7BMdVf7i8
if you're time poor skip through to 1:21

Also One Meridian Plaza fire caused by linseed oil soaked rags. Also read the effect of sprinklers eventually had on the fire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Meridian_Plaza

Where I work, a staff member took mops out of dryer and placed in a basket (not cooled) and went home, they started to smolder. Thank fully the smoke detector activated and the brigade came in. Laundry had a lot of smoke and heat damage. After repairs the only visible sign was where part of the basket had melted onto the floor.

Oil-soaked tea towels in a dryer! I wouldn't call that Spontaneous combustion. I'd call it a fire starter.
I can understand someone not realising the tea towels had been soaked in oil or just not thinking and thus starting a fire. I just wouldn't call it spontaneous or even surprising once the almost inevitable combustion occurs.