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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Spontaneous Combustion by Skip Williamson Fire Prevention 52: Spontaneous Combustion–Fact or Fiction? A pile of dirty rags spontaneously catches fire in someone's garage. Round hay bales stored in a farmer's field go up in flames. Smoke can be seen coming from a city's large compost pile. All three scenarios occur without the addition of flame or heat. Are these stories fact or fiction? Spontaneous combustion or spontaneous ignition, as it is often called, is the occurrence of fire without the application of an external heat source. Due to chemical, biological, or physical processes, combustible materials self-heat to a temperature high enough for ignition to occur. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an estimated 14,070 fires occur annually from spontaneous combustion. Think something like this cannot occur in your park or home? Think again. A few months ago, an NPS fire crew in the San Francisco Bay area was conducting routine maintenance of their hand tools. One of their tasks involved applying linseed oil with a rag to their tool handles. Even though the crew took precautions with the rag, placing it outside to dry flat on a workbench at the end of the day, the rag caught fire, started the workbench on fire, and spread up the wall of an attached shed. Fortunately, an employee saw the smoke and the fire was extinguished before significant damage occurred. Rags and towels soaked with oils, including cooking oils; hot laundry left in piles; large compost, mulch, manure, and leaf piles; and moist baled hay can spontaneously combust in the right conditions. Avoid this type of fire by following a few simple and proven tips: Store piles of hay, compost, mulch, manure, and leaves away from buildings, in case a fire occurs, and keep the piles small to allow for the circulation of air and the dissipation of heat. Work groups or businesses using large quantities of oily rags should dispose of those rags in an OSHA-approved container to await pickup by an industrial cleaning company. If you're working on a project at home, spread the soiled rags in a single layer on concrete to prevent the buildup of heat and allow the rags to become hard and brittle. Place the rags out of direct sunlight and secure the corners to prevent movement by wind. Hay should be completely dry before baling and moving to a storage facility. Ensure that the facility is well ventilated. Dial 911 or your local fire emergency number if your hay bales or mulch, leaf, manure, or compost pile is emitting smoke. The combustible material will need to be spread out to dissipate the rising heat, but the introduction of oxygen can result in an immediate fire. Firefighters should be standing by onsite. Fire Info for You. Employees Learn more about spontaneous combustion by viewing an ABC News video with Diane Sawyer , which demonstrates how a linseed oil-soaked rag spontaneously combusted. Discover more about the NPS fire mentioned above by reading a Facilitated Learning Analysis of the incident. Firefighters Increase your knowledge of spontaneous combustion and its occurrences by reading the NFPA report titled, " Fires Caused by Spontaneous Combustion or Chemical Reaction Fact Sheet ." Park Structural Fire Coordinators Keep watch for unsafe storage and disposal of oily rags in concession facilities and maintenance buildings. Park Leadership Prepare standard operating procedures (SOPs) that outline the proper disposal of oily rags and ensure that the proper storage containers are available for use. Take Action. Walk through your home or workplace and identify spontaneous combustion risks. Immediately remove the risk by taking appropriate measures, such as removing the pile of rags in your garage, or inform management of the fire hazard. Contact the park's safety officer or park structural fire coordinator for approved disposal options. Spontaneous Combustion by Skip Williamson. These are the remains of Dr. John Bentley (on left)who died of spontaneous combustion in Pennsylvania in 1966. The spot where the body lay is burnt, but the rest of the room, including the toilet, was not even scorched. This shows a quick, hot flame that devoured the body in seconds. Only the bottom of one leg remained to identify this as a person. On the right is a picture of workers cleaning up the remains of Mrs. M H Reeser of Florida who apparently died of spontaneous combustion in July of 1951. The only remains found was her skull, shrunken to the size of an orange. There are theories on this occurance but no one is sure how or why it happens. It does happen even without scientific explanation. One theory is ball lightning which would produce similar results, but many of these instances seem to rule out this possibility just by the location of the death. A majority of these deaths have the opposite characteristics that one would see if a person was burned to death, such as the shrinking of the skull. Crematorium Specialist have viewed photos of combustion victims and say they cannot duplicate the complete destruction of bones in such a short period of time. They find it even harder to believe that this could happen so completely in ordinary rooms such as living rooms, bathrooms, etc. There are over 100 unexplained fire deaths a year just in England. If just ten of these deaths are spontaneous combustion, then the number world could be well over 100. Does the body have chemical reactions that science has yet to discover ? It seems that an internal reaction of some kind is the most likely explanation for these deaths, but what triggers it ? Can it be detected ? Avoided ? This picture is another case of spontaneous combustion that occurred in London in 1964. One compiled database states the following statistics on possible reported cases: 1950's - 11 cases. 1970's - 13 cases. 1980's - 22 cases More Cases of SHC 1932: Mrs. Charles Williamson suddenly burst into flames on a Janurary morning in 1932. She lived in Bladenboro, North Carolina. She had not been beside any kind of fire, and her dress had not been in contact with any cleaning fluid or other flammable substances. Her husband and daughter ripped the dress off her with their bare hands, but not any of them were burned by the flames. Not to soon after a pair of her husbands pants caught fire while hanging in the closet. The same thing happened to a bed, and curtains in an unoccupied room. Although the house was inspected by special investigators from gas and electric companies, arson experts, and police, there could be found no logical explanation for the sudden fires. The family described the flames as 'bluish, jetlike', and other adjacent objects were not affected. There was no smell, and no smoke and until the object was consumed the fire would not stop. - sent in by [email protected]. Jan. 13, 1943: 52 year old Allen M. Small was found burned to death in his Deer Isle, Maine home. The carpet beneath his body was scorched, but there was no other sign of fire in the house. Small's pipe was unlit and on a shelf, and his stove lids were all still in place. - sent in by [email protected]. March 1, 1953: Waymon Wood's body was discovered in the front seat of his closed car in Greenville, South Carolina. His car was stationed on the site of Bypass Route 291. Little remained of Wood, but his car was basically untouched, even though it contained half a tank of gas. The windshield was the only damaged area; it had bubbled and sagged inward, an affect from the intense heat. - sent in by [email protected]. October, 1964: Mrs. Olga Worth Stephens, 75 years and a former actress suddenly burst into flames while waiting in her parked car. The burns were fatal, and she was killed before anyone could come to her aid. Firemen later concluded that nothing in the car could have started the blaze, and her car was undamaged. - sent in by [email protected]. The images on this page were obtained from publicly available sources, and to the best of our knowledge, the images are in the public domain. If you own the copyright on any image on this page, and you would like us to remove it, please identify yourself and the image, and we will. If you own the copyright and you are willing to give us permission to use the image, we would like to know that also. Bibliography - get these books, they are great ! Strange & Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century, Randle,Jenny ; Sterling Publishing co, Inc, NY 1994 pp73-5. Is Spontaneous Human Combustion Real? Late at night on Christmas Eve 1885, in the small farming town of Seneca, Illinois, a woman named Matilda Rooney burst into flames. She was alone in her kitchen when it happened. The fire quickly incinerated her entire body except her feet. The incident also claimed the life of her husband, Patrick, who was found suffocated from the fumes in another room of the house. The tragedy left investigators baffled. There was no reason to suspect foul play. The Rooneys had been relaxing and drinking whiskey that evening. A farmhand who had spent a few hours with them hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. Furthermore, no source of ignition could be found for the blaze. Although the flames had been intense enough to reduce Matilda Rooney to ashes and a few fragments of bone, they had not spread to the rest of the room.