Spontaneous combustion and your everyday products

8/22/2020 (Permalink)

Have you ever thought about how your everyday cleaning products can cause a fire? Spontaneous combustion, ever heard of it?

Wikipedia’s definition explains:

Spontaneous combustion or spontaneous ignition is a type of combustion which occurs by self-heating (increase in temperature due to exothermic internal reactions

*Exothermic reactions consist of releasing heat.

Here at SERVPRO of Gig Harbor/North Tacoma and SERVPRO of Mason County we have seen the effects of spontaneous combustion. Our fire crew has been on the frontlines after a fire had occurred from combustion.

Why does this happen?

You should know that when working with products that can cause spontaneous combustion.

When working with the following products: oil-based paints and stains, teak and linseed oils, varnishes and polyurethane, paint thinners, etc.

These are all products that can lead to a fire. Why and how? When heat has no way of escaping these oils when left in a heap can raise their own temperature. Heat needs to escape, but when its crumpled up it keeps all of that inside, leading to ignite the oils and resulting in a fire.

Here are some tips to avoid a spontaneous combustion:

• When working with any of the above potential products that can lead to fire, keep a clean workspace. Yes, we understand after working on a project its easy to leave it as is and return the next day. But we strongly recommend cleaning up after yourself and keeping a clean work environment. The positive to this, you have a clean canvas to work with the next day on your project.
• What to do with the rags? If you have rags that have been soiled with any of the above substances, you can lay the rags out on a concrete floor
• Rags can go inside an airtight container: plastic, zip lock bag or a metal. The key is to make sure its airtight and fill the remaining space with water.

We hope we were able to provide light to what can cause a harmful danger to you. If you have any questions on how else we can help you in preventing fire damages, call our office today 253-851-6711.