Dryer Fire Tonight!!!!!

[henene4]

Bleach, oil and fires

There is always that "possible, but unlikely" thought.

It is possible that you are stung by a bee right now as you reed this. Pretty unlikely, may never happen, but perfectly logicly possible.

Cooking oil should not combust at 180°F. But theoreticly, the oil highers the risk of the spontaneus combustion. And with a dryer combining a big source of heat and a lot of oxigen being brought in, risk of combustion is higher after all anyway.

Just because it dosen't happen often, it dose not not happen at all. And as long as it can happen, it can happen.

 

[iej]

That's scary!

Ours is Miele electric dryer with a straight run of metal ducting. Every few weeks I just use a damp mop to clean out the full duct and give the machine itself a bit of a vacuuming.

It's surprising just how much lint gets through the filters!

 

[mamapinky]

First off Dustin has been a member here for years, so would know more than the average person on the proper way to do laundry, which isn't to say he couldn't have made a bad decision.
But look at the evidence...they were smoldering, burst into flames, doused with water, brought outside and burst into flames again...yet they were wet/ cool enough to move outdoors without bursting into flames in route...why exactly were they moved anyway? Who moved the laundry? And why in the world would anyone care to move a load of towels at that point considering the danger involved. No it doesn't add up especially after just hours before the **daughter gave uou attatude....I bet she got pissed or embarrassed at what you said and........!!!
Hope it all works out Dustin but I wouldn't blame yourself you were doing your job to the best of your ability Good luck Cheryl

 

[arbilab]

Linseed oil is notorious for spontaneous combustion. But lo, so are food oils. While the dryer temp is well below ignition temp, it's enough to accelerate oxidation which is exothermic, the same process that ignites linseed.

Cotton wicking greatly enhances this. Just like it's rather difficult to ignite lamp oil or candle wax without a wick.

None of that makes it 'your fault'. Funny thing is, if you'd soaked those kitchen items in gasoline then laundered them in hot where the detergent got hold of the food oil, the gasoline would have dissolved the cooking oils and the hot water would have vaporized the gasoline volatiles. Theoretically. Not saying to do that.

Have to say, the temp/time/detergent concentration were insufficient to remove cooking oil below the threshold where this could happen. But that determination is scientific well beyond what you 'should have known'.

The chef 'should' have sopped the oil with paper towels sealed in airtight metal containers, just like furniture refurbishers 'should' do with linseed oil.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Thinking back, I don't know whether that laudromat fire could have been caused by any kind of oil in clothes or simply, by my theory that one vent line, or more, may have not properly, routinely cleaned...

 

There were piles of peoples' rescued laundry on the ground outside, and no sobbing people, taking on the quality of people or pets having to be rescued in the small blaze...

 

My dryer recently quit heating and while I thought that it was the igniter which quit working, the repair man repaced a small metal oval-shaped disc, which was a thermal fuse...

 

He also took gobs, and gobs of lint out of the lower area where all the dryer's workings are--filling a waste basket w/ enough lint and other dust, that I was aching for it to be garbage day, also telling us to let him know, if our laundry still doesn't get completely dry...

 

I have a tool kit w/ a vacuum cleaner attatchment, and a few brushed to at least go into my dryer's line trap, but really wonder about the quality of my duct work...

 

So I'm left to always be home when any long-term drying is being done...  I would like to someday dismantle our dryer's venting, if not put in some new piping altogether... (I find my self using the "Touch-Up" on the dial for a few loads; I like my clothes hot when I take 'em out!)...

 

 

-- Dave

 

 

 

[combo52]

Why Would Anyone Remove Smoldering Clothing From A Dryer

If I found a bunch of smoldering smoking laundry you bet your a.. that I would douse it with water or a fire extinguisher and get it out of the house as fast as possible, and it may not be the safest or wisest thing to do but I would still try to get that stinking mess out of the house as fast as possible, next thing I would do[ if possible ] would be getting the dryer out of the house.

 

We had a customer on Capital Hill who had a full sized WP Gas TT where the dryer caught fire, when I went by the house to investigate a few hours after the fire I found the entire machine sitting in the front yard, The DC Fire Men disconnected the gas, water etc and carried the hot smoldering machine out of the house.

 

[launderess]

Years Ago When We First Moved To The Area

Local Laundromat was run by a bunch of, well basically 'young adults" who seemed to care little to nil about the place beyond getting paid. Every other week it seemed the FDNY was there to put out dryer fires. Was told by another resident in my street that routine nightly maintenance (cleaning out the lint traps) was not being performed.

Laundry has long since closed, renovated and reopened under new workers (Chinese visa immigrants), who make sure the lint traps are cleaned nightly.

 

[mamapinky]

Back in the 60's &70's my aunt had a very large laundromat and she lived upstairs. I spent most weekends with aunt joyce as a child so I spent much time downstairs at the laundromat. I remember through out the day her pulling a large panel off the bottom part of the dryers and sweeping them out, I also remember every sunday she used a large vac and after sweeping them out she vac'ed them I don't know if she vacumed them during the week also. Some of my best childhood memories were in that laundromat. In the early 80's the laundromat burnt to the ground taking several apartments adjacent to the building, at that time the laundromat was no longer my aunts and there never seemed to be anyone there attending. I'm not sure if any info can be found on that laundromat fire in blairsville pa but I was told it started in a dryer. Cheryl

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Thank you, Mamapinky!

I'm glad someone else has a problem with that piece of the story. Also, if the girl is old enough to be a lifeguard, she's old enough to know that her behaviour was WAY out of line. As I understand it she presented herself as a supervisor of someone (Dustin) who is not only in a different department, but ABOVE her. There's just no non-hostile interpretation of this behaviour that I can see.

 

Jim

 

[yogitunes]

some things don't add up......

while true, dryer fires can happen, whether through lint, or oil substance on clothing...and a chance of static charge.....anything is possible

the one thing THAT isn't making sense......all this 'hype' over the dryer fire, which seems more intense after the incident....more so than the actual time of events to call the fire dept....

normal people would be hysterical/upset at the moment of the actual fire.....not afterwards....

that would be my biggest question....Why wasn't the fire dept called?.....especially for a business.....

we had a local Laundromat that seemed to catch fire at least once every other month......and always in the middle of the night...and seemed like no sooner insurance paid and it was repaired, it would catch fire again....the last time it happened, the fire dept was in no hurry to put it out, normally you would watch them run in and put it out immediately.....this time, they checked for bodies inside, and it wasn't until it was engulfed in flames did they start to pull out the hoses......I think they got tired of the same incident, over and over..

 

[mamapinky]

Thanks Jim.....this whole story seems strange, and I can't get past someone carrying wet burnt laundry outside where it bursts into flames again, wet. Dustin how badly burned was the dryer? Was it the ** daughter who opened the dryer door and doused the flames? And than carried them outside to the sidewalk? Any witnesses to this? Someone took a chance these didn't burst back into flames carrying them outside. I know lots of questions that can't be answered...you probably have figured out what I'm thinking happened, even though it could have been a freak accident, there's also a chance it wasn't a accident.

 

[dustin92]

I don't know if it was the daughter or the director that hauled the laundry outside, but the daughter told me she threw a bucket of water in the dryer when she discovered the fire. The director and his wife live in a separate house on the property (although a fair distance away). He came down when the daughter brought the kids up and said there was a fire. The amount of water she claims to have thrown on it (standard size wastebasket that sits under a drippy water valve, last I had seen it was about half full) SHOULD have doused the fire. The dryer isn't terribly burned, though I haven't seen the inside yet, the paint above the door and on the sides and top of the cabinet is yellowed. From what I've heard, the lint filter area in the front of the drum is melted. A good 3/4 of what was in the dryer was saved, although smells like smoke even after being rewashed. No one besides her and her kids were in the house when the fire started. She seems to be making a huge drama out of it, because the morning after the fire, I went in with her to grab my laundry stuff, and she was coughing and complaining how the smell burned her lungs... It smelled bad, yes, it smelled like burned garbage in the house, but the windows had been open all night, and fans on. Didn't bother my throat or lungs at all. I don't think she has stayed in the house since the fire.

 

[dustin92]

Well, I'll add to my last post, the daughter's car is at the house now, so she may be staying there tonight...

 

[kitty]

Scary.

As combo52 said about the outlet burning up in a 110 volt dryer, like my maytag portable! The person who had it before me replaced a section of the cord with 18 gauge (thin), and it gets very warm while running, and the joint gets quite hot, so I'm probably just going to replace the whole cord with 10 gauge cord . But about the outlet which is scary, well I'm not as concerned because I have the dryer in the workshop and I think all the outlets are 20 amp, well all the circuit breakers are.

What is really scary is I wash oily shop towels in a whirly direct drive washer 2or 3 times then dry in a 40 year old Kenmore!!! And then just leave the building!!!!!! I set the timer to 1 hour, and and on delicate (just above low heat), but still scary!!! Maybe I should stay at the shop and periodically check on it.

 

[arbilab]

Depends what the oil is. Car oil? It specifically does NOT oxidize at dryer/engine temps. Apparently (from what I read) it is the ongoing accelerated oxidation that 'spontaneously' ignites linseed and some food oils. They won't do that in their containers. Only when applied to a wick/rag that gives oxygen a large surface area. Some will ignite WITHOUT any heat source (dryer). It's all in the nature of the oil.

It's general good practice never to turn one's back on any appliance that generates concentrated heat. Furnaces and waterheaters have redundant safeties specifically so you can sleep with them running. Dryers have redundant safeties for the heat the machine generates but it does not take into account any heat the load itself might generate.

 

[kitty]

@arbilab

Everything. car oil, Jet engine oil. Kerosene (jet fuel), alcohol, methyl ethyl keytone, hydraulic oil acetone, etc. you get the point : a very dangerous flammable mix

 

[dustin92]

Update on the dryer... The repair person came out today, While I was gone, and after I got back, the Director's wife gave me the news. Apparently the fire was no failure of the dryer, but was indeed caused by a chemical reaction (or at least started in the drum) and was deemed operator error. Apparently we shouldn't have been using the sanitize cycle (Why is it even there then?!) The dryer is beyond repair, and she is waiting for a call back from Whirlpool to find out if they can give us a good discount on a new dryer. I told her if not, I would look for a good used one to replace it with. Right now, I'm sitting at the laundromat for the second time this week. I have decided I'm going to look for a portable washer and dryer set, to be put in the kitchen (there is a perfect corner for them in the dish area with access to water, drain, and 120v power) To be used for kitchen linens and staff laundry.

 

[mark_wpduet]

I have a small amount of experience with

LAUNDROMATS!

In the mid 1990s, I briefly worked at a Texaco in Maryville, TN (part of Knoxville) It was on Hunt Road and it had a laundromat and a grill! Two of us worked at night from 3 to ll pm. One of us had to clean the grill area and the other had to do the laundromat. I HATED doing the laundromat. Opening those dryer panels and sweeping all that lint away...But it was done EVERY night. Cleaning the washers, and bathrooms in the laundromat. I hated that part of working there. I only did it for a few months. I can't imagine any laundromat neglecting to clean those dryer lint screens, because they were always covered with lint! I'm not surprised there are fires in laundromats that are too lazy to clean them.

 

[arbilab]

IINM the exact wording of the warning is "use with fabrics washed in water only" with no mention of what the fabrics contained before they were washed. It's not really your fault the detergent left enough cooking oil to oxidize and self ignite. The legal 'reasonable person' could not have foreseen that.

 

[combo52]

Fire Warning

Martin posted WPs fire warning in reply #11, this warning is on ALL WP laundry products for many years now.

 

While it is always good to keep duct-work and lint filters clean on any clothes dryer, NOT doing so does not cause many dryer fires, dryers today have plenty of safeties built-in to prevent dangerous operation.

 

This unfortunately is operator error, [ it could have happened to any of us including ME ] and the lesson I hope we all learned is to never attempt to dry clothing that had cooking oil or linseed oil on them unless you are completely sure that they are completely clean.