House destroyed by fire from staining rags

[Chachi111769]

I thought I would share this with y'all due to the nature of it.

Last night (1/29/16) a house was destroyed here in my town by staining rags.
The staining agent on the rags reacted to the close proximity and self-ignited, which spread from the rags to the rest of the house.
So always be careful when using stain always put the rags in a bucket of water as soon as you are done using them....
 

 

Happy Cutting 

Chachi 

[Phantom Scroller]

Yep that's always scares me. I won't even leave them in my shop they go out in water then I dump them responsibly. In the nearest skip.   Roly

[LarryEA]

Thanks for the reminder. 

[Scrolling Steve]

Thanks for sharing Chachi !

[dgman]

Thanks Chachi.

This applies to all oil based finishes like stains, polyurethane, lacquer, boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits, tung oil and such.

As the oil dries, it gives off heat. If you have a pile of oily rags all bunched up, the heat can ignite and cause a fire.

The proper way to dispose of oily rags is to dump them in lidded metal bucket filled with water. But then you have to deal with disposing of the oily water. What I do is lay the rags, single layer over the edge of a metal trash can till they are dry. Once dry, they are safe to toss in the trash.

[amazingkevin]

I worry to about them!