Fire/Arson Investigations : Fire/Arson Investigations
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Re: Dryer Fire - Spontaneous Heating Oily Towels and Aprons
Posted by: Sir Gary (IP Logged)
Date: October 27, 2017 01:52AM
I hope you briefed the lab what to look for;
a routine ignitable-liquid testing regime (a la ASTM E1618) won't necessarily pick it up.
I've had 3 commercial-dryer fires;
all cases where the items had been washed at low-heat settings (i.e. oil traces not effectively removed from cotton-based laundry items), then tumble-dried.
In one the items (dish clothes soiled with cooking oil) were left in the dryer, in the other two the items (towels soiled with a grapeseed oil-based massage lotion) were removed from the dryer, but left in a pile.
Ignition typically 2- to 4 hours after tumble-drying.
Ironically just this week I had a linseed-oil based fire (soiled paper toweling in a waste basket);
I've been dutifully asking this question ("You haven't been polishing furniture with linseed oil or anything?") for over a decade now,
and did a double take when the witness said "Yeah, the afternoon of the fire".
a routine ignitable-liquid testing regime (a la ASTM E1618) won't necessarily pick it up.
I've had 3 commercial-dryer fires;
all cases where the items had been washed at low-heat settings (i.e. oil traces not effectively removed from cotton-based laundry items), then tumble-dried.
In one the items (dish clothes soiled with cooking oil) were left in the dryer, in the other two the items (towels soiled with a grapeseed oil-based massage lotion) were removed from the dryer, but left in a pile.
Ignition typically 2- to 4 hours after tumble-drying.
Ironically just this week I had a linseed-oil based fire (soiled paper toweling in a waste basket);
I've been dutifully asking this question ("You haven't been polishing furniture with linseed oil or anything?") for over a decade now,
and did a double take when the witness said "Yeah, the afternoon of the fire".
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