Small Stack Of Firewood And Oily Rags Burns House Down
I remember hearing a story a long time ago about a house
that got burned down to the ground and the investigators blamed it on a
small stack of firewood and some oily rags that were stacked next to the
house. I couldn't believe what actually happened, but I'm sharing this
story with you, so that you can share it with others. Hopefully
together, we can prevent things like this from happening in the future.
The stack of firewood didn't actually catch on fire mysteriously. The
person who owned the house, worked on cars in his spare time and often
through oily and greasy rags in the trash cans. He would also throw
these greasy rags on top of the firewood stack.
Stuff like this usually doesn't happen while the people are home. The
man went out to get something for lunch and by the time he came back all
he could see was fire and smoke coming out of his home. He had no idea
what caused the fire and the last person that he thought about, that
could have actually started the fire, was himself.
It didn't take the fire department long, to realize that he was probably
the culprit and didn't even know it yet. He still had grease marks on
his clothes from working on the cars. The fireman asked him a few
questions about flammable fuel storage and then started to ask him how
he discarded his oily or greasy rags.
The man said that he usually throws used greasy towels and rags in the
trash. The firemen explained that these greasy towels under certain
conditions can spontaneously ignite and start a fire. The moral to this
story is simple, don't store oily, greasy or rags that have any type of
flammable liquids on them. These items can be safely stored in a metal
trashcan. Oh yeah, one more thing that I would like to suggest, if you
do store oily rags in a metal trashcan, it wouldn't be a bad idea to
store this metal trashcan in an area away from your house, just in case
it ever caught on fire.
This doesn't mean that you store the metal trashcan next to a wooden
fence or stack of firewood either. A little fire safety knowledge can go
a long way, something to think about.