Surviving My Own Stupidity...

[Lawson4450]

I have been to a few fires because of this very thing. One engulfed the garage the other burned itself out on a wooden workbench but filled the garage and the house with heat and smoke.

 

[kjdhawkhill]

Depending on distance between garage/shop and main house, run a hard wire interconnect between the garage/shop fire alarm and the house fire alarm so that if either location 'triggers', they ALL squawk (same as all the current interior house fire alarms are supposed to be hard wired together so that they all go off in the event of and event.) Double check on Code as to whether an outbuilding smoke/fire alarm is 'allowed' to connect back to the house system or not.

I don't like the idea of linking alarms between house and detached buildings at all- my reaction to a fire in my own home, near my family, will be significantly different to my reaction to a fire in my [detached] garage/shop/shed, near my stuff. Example of worst case: detectors and alarms go off in the house at 2 am... I don't smell anything in the house. I DO remember something dumb about linseed oil and rags I saw once on the forums. I just refinished something earlier that day. I run through the snow in pack boots and boxers, to the outbuilding only to find that there is nothing wrong... I turn around and see flames in my finished house basement where my [no judgment] pothead of a [finding himself] son is konked out, having dropped his jet lighter into the incense pile... If my alarms in the house are only house alarms, I'm likely to ignore my memory of whatever stupid sh?t I did in the shop prior to going to bed, and recognize that the house is likely smoldering somewhere, searching for the smoke, and finding catnip boy in the basement while he still has a chance to survive.

Exaggeration, sure, but if I'm going through the trouble to link alarms, I'll get a smart[er] system that I can tell the difference between house and life at risk vs probably going to lose some sh?t 75 feet from the house.

*I'm too young to have a pothead kid, yet
**crosses fingers and hopes their addictions are physical exertion or sports of any sort.

 

[Z2V]

Talked to my father this evening.

Hi dad, what did you do today?
I put linseed oil on your moms bench on the back porch.
Dad, what did you do with the rags you used?
I put them in the trash along with the rags with lacquer thinner that I cleaned up with.
DAD, HANG UP NOW!!!

Thanks Ryan and GJ for having this fresh on my mind and quite possibly saving my parents major problems.

 

[bluebolt]

Wow, the video is funny and painful to watch!

 

[jmacdoors]

that's amazing... a simple mistake that could've been made by anyone. I had no idea linseed oil could go up in flames like that spontaneously. Now I know, and a very good thing to know indeed.

 

[AMcM]

I learned about oil when my brother left a rag with Watco oil on it on his workbench while we got a sandwich. It was in flames when we returned. Now all trash cans in my shop are galvy metal with lids from the hardware store. If I'm suspicious of anything I pull the can away from everything and the lid goes on tightly. Glad you still have a shop, mine would have burned to the ground.

 

[Gerald O]

Question:

All of these metal 'oily waste' safety cans are labeled, "Empty Every Night". So clearly these are not intended to safely store oily rags overnight.

So the question is, into what does one empty these every night?

 

[rlitman]

Question:

All of these metal 'oily waste' safety cans are labeled, "Empty Every Night". So clearly these are not intended to safely store oily rags overnight.

So the question is, into what does one empty these every night?

Another similar can. You just buy seven of them, and empty each one every night into the next until trash day.

 

[Louroy]

Holy $h1t - you were SO lucky. I'll never toss a used rag in the garbage again thanks to your lesson.

 

[Milton Shaw]

I toss that kind of rag out on a concrete driveway and spread them out to dry before they go into a metal trash can. Don't do it on an asphalt drive as a asphalt driveway can burn but a concrete cannot unless you are homeless and lighting a fire under the interstate. (285 Atlanta)

 

[Dennis Leigh Henry]

I worked for a painting contractor in the late 70s and early 80s.. and their standard procedure was to hang paint rags on anything substantial (vise, sink, faucet, toilet lid(back), masonry anything... etc. To air them out. Others went to the burn barrel. Luck to not have any events like this. We used a ton of oil based paints and varnishes... I have a safety can now in my shop, and even then open the rags up so they air out instead of wadding the rags up to accelerate the spontaneous combustion.......

 

[orangeblood]

Question:

All of these metal 'oily waste' safety cans are labeled, "Empty Every Night". So clearly these are not intended to safely store oily rags overnight.

So the question is, into what does one empty these every night?

this is a good question...where should they be kept? do they ultimately dry out enough to be put in the household trash?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Just now seeing this thread. Ryan, like many others mentioned you dodged a bullet. I've been to a few fires started by BLO.

 

[Bogdan M.]

I have seen this a few days ago on the main page and I can say that I learned a lot from it.
I had the same habbit of throwing rags in the trash can that's inside the garage. Also cans of brake cleaner. I use at least 6 cans per month.
Because of the video - not anymore.
The stupid thing is that I have a wood stove and during the winter I normally use the rags to start the fire in the morning. I will now use the stove o a daily basis to discard rags. Or take them outside to the bin.
You had an enormous amount of luck.

 

[antalog]

A good learning aide now that you have footage of the whole thing. Glad it didnt spread.

 

[MikeF2316]

Well my "birthday present buyers" came through! I now join the red safety can club.

Thanks Ryan and all the other posters. You may have made me waste a birthday present, or you may have saved me from the disaster of a fire. We'll never know.

 

[Friendly Shark]

Wow! Reading this thread makes me glad I purchased a 10 gallon Justrite safety can too !

 

[Thirdyfivepickup]

...searching for the smoke, and finding catnip boy in the basement while he still has a chance to survive.

"catnip boy" made me giggle.

 

[kjdhawkhill]

"catnip boy" made me giggle.

Creative writing is my strongest contribution to this forum. I'm just here to learn from others. Glad you enjoyed it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jeffmoss26]

Wow. Glad everyone is okay, that is super scary.

 

[zak77]

Locate people hired a contractor to add an addition to their house and renovate the interior. The contractor's son was staining/sealing some wood and must've left some rags in a pile instead of throwing them in a proper container. House was almost a total loss. Fire started in the living room on the first floor, burned through and dropped into the basement. Thankfully a neighbor called it in before it was totally engulfed but the heat/smoke/water damage was pretty heavy. There was a nicely stacked pile of charred hardwood flooring about 8 feet away from the where the fire originated. Even pros mess up sometimes.

They ended up having to tear the house completely down, no saving it. The contractor's insurance dropped him and now he's building them a completely new house.

This also reminds me of my friend who happen to toss a hot/cooking oil soaked rag into the bed of his truck after cleaning his griddle off. He also just got done spreading mulch so there was some still left in the bed. Woke up the next morning and caught an whiff of smoke in the kitchen and found his garage FULL of smoke. The rag smoldered all night in the mulch, on top of the plastic bed liner. When he finally got it all cleaned out the bed liner had a hole melted in it so he is very lucky his house didnt burn or any real damage at all. I think he had heat detectors in his garage, not smokes, or he removed them.

 

[Locker537]

Question:

All of these metal 'oily waste' safety cans are labeled, "Empty Every Night". So clearly these are not intended to safely store oily rags overnight.

So the question is, into what does one empty these every night?

This is what I am wondering...

Last rag, I put it in a container with water and disposed of it like used motor oil.

 

[Nexussian]

Greybeards always told me you throw them in the wood stove, so if they do ignite no big deal.

Wood stoves were more common back in the day, apparently.

 

[Fixr]

They ended up having to tear the house completely down, no saving it. The contractor's insurance dropped him and now he's building them a completely new house.

This also reminds me of my friend who happen to toss a hot/cooking oil soaked rag into the bed of his truck after cleaning his griddle off. He also just got done spreading mulch so there was some still left in the bed. Woke up the next morning and caught an whiff of smoke in the kitchen and found his garage FULL of smoke. The rag smoldered all night in the mulch, on top of the plastic bed liner. When he finally got it all cleaned out the bed liner had a hole melted in it so he is very lucky his house didnt burn or any real damage at all. I think he had heat detectors in his garage, not smokes, or he removed them.

AFAIK, cooking oil is not known for spontaneously combusting. I'v only ever heard of it with materials that cure by an exothermic reaction like linseed oil or epoxy.

And spontaneous human combustion, of course.

 

[nadogail]

Greybeards always told me you throw them in the wood stove, so if they do ignite no big deal.

Wood stoves were more common back in the day, apparently.

I lived in Alaska from the age of 12 to month before my 22nd Birthday, those who have never lived in Alaska don't understand a lot of things.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Hard to believe this was 8 years ago.

 

[pcmeiners]

You were damn lucky. My father and I used to paint our shingled house with linseed oil, we use to leave any oil soak rags outside which would heat up over night if left in a pile.
My mom's house went up in flames when a contractor folded/stacked drop cloths which had paint and turpentine on them. Turpentine is a really dangerous substance when it gets on folded cloth or is mix with an oxidizer.

 

[Mike65]

When I was much younger, in my early twenty's my oldest brother & I bought a box full of fireworks for our use & we left them on the workbench in the detatched garage along with my 68 Mustang GT Coupe. One day my brother & I are working on something that required use of the bench grinder. One thing led to another & a spark must have ended up in the box of fireworks & all hell broke loose. We could not get out of the garage fast enough. Fortunately, no damage was done to the garage or my Mustang. Lesson learned, keep sparks away from fireworks.

 

[Firebrick43]

AFAIK, cooking oil is not known for spontaneously combusting. I'v only ever heard of it with materials that cure by an exothermic reaction like linseed oil or epoxy.

And spontaneous human combustion, of course.

All organic oils and solvents will oxidize, especially spread out with tons of surface area when soaked in a rag.

Linseed and Tung oil are just the worst at it because of the Japan driers that speed the process up

 

[545_days]

It's an old thread, but a new topic to bring up for his that have never read about spontaneous combustion.

My solution is to place oily tags in a metal paint bucket and set them on fire so that they burn safely while I observe.

 

[WisJim]

I worked building maintenance at a state university in a building that had a kitchen for a student run restaurant. One night there was a fire that did a lot of damage in spite of smoke alarms and sprinkler system, and it was caused by a stack of kitchen rags that had been laundered and then folded immediately out of the clothes drier and stacked on a cart, ready for the next day. They were somewhat warm and had enough residual cooking oil left after laundering that they ignited and burned.

 

[niget2002]

Eek. I'm not sure if what I do is appropriate. I typically drape used finishing rags over something until them completely dry before throwing away. I may switch to soaking them in water. How long do they need to soak before they can be tossed?

 

[Fixr]

All organic oils and solvents will oxidize, especially spread out with tons of surface area when soaked in a rag.

Linseed and Tung oil are just the worst at it because of the Japan driers that speed the process up

I'm not saying that cooking oil and lubricating oil on rags can't spontaneously combust, only that I have never personally heard of such an event. I've heard of a number of examples of finishing oils and the like cooking off. I conclude that the oxidation of engine oil is quite significantly slower than that of Danish oil finish and the like. I spread the latter out to dry outside away from structures. I don't do that with a rag I used to wipe up some engine oil on the floor.

 

[Fixr]

Eek. I'm not sure if what I do is appropriate. I typically drape used finishing rags over something until them completely dry before throwing away. I may switch to soaking them in water. How long do they need to soak before they can be tossed?

Spreading them to dry is one of the standard recommendations from the safety experts, along with drowning them in water. I would just not toss them all jammed together. Keep them spread out and not in contact with each other.

Or if permissible where you live, forestall spontaneous combustion by piling them up in a safe place and lighting them on fire.

 

[pcmeiners]

All of these metal 'oily waste' safety cans are labeled, "Empty Every Night". So clearly these are not intended to safely store oily rags overnight.

Since the lid is closed on these safety cans the most that can happen is the contents use up the oxygen in the can and oxidize slowly with the air which leaks in. The would warm up the can that is about it unless an oxidizing agent is in the can also; in the case of my mom's house the contractor mixed turpentine/lacquer thinner in a can which had pool chlorine bits in it... an absolutely brilliant Darwin Award candidate. Now the can must not have flammable material next to it or an oxidizing agent in it to be safe.