Spontaneous combustion of overalls caused fire

BY KIRSTY JOHNSTON

A devastating house fire in Manaia this week has been labelled a freak event by fire officers.

The blaze began on Thursday after the spontaneous combustion of a pair of overalls lying on the laundry floor.

Spurred by wind, the flames then razed the Winks Rd home to the ground.

Taranaki fire safety officer Matt Crabtree said it was the first time in his career he had ever seen anything of the sort.

"It's very, very random.

"There are many other causes of fire which are far more common."

Mr Crabtree said he had discovered the cause of the fire by process of elimination.

"It appears the overalls were on the laundry floor, it could have been they were at the bottom of a pile of clothing.

"We're still unsure of what was on the overalls, but it's more than likely a hydrocarbon like motor oil or diesel – farmers work with those sorts of chemicals all the time," Mr Crabtree said.

Spontaneous combustion only occurs under elevated temperature conditions and requires certain steps to happen before ignition can occur.

One of those is that the temperature of the material rises, usually from its centre.

In some cases, the material around the combustible item catches fire first.

"So this could have been smouldering for quite some time, we don't know. As I said, there's no need for panic, it's a completely random event," Mr Crabtree said.

He said it would classed as an accidental fire and reminded the public of the importance of working smoke alarms – which the Manaia home had installed.

The young family who lived in the home had yesterday gone on holiday to get away from their ruined house and did not want to be named.

Father and grandfather to the family and owner of the home, Ian Diack, said he was completely devastated.

"The farm's been in the family for 100 years and my grandkids are the fifth generation living in the house," Mr Diack said.

The home had been built 85 years ago by his grandfather, he said.

"When I saw the fire I had to come home and use my heart puffer. It's just bloody lucky no-one was inside."

And, Mr Diack said, contrary to what the Taranaki Daily News printed yesterday, two more items had survived the blaze than just the wedding photos.

His daughter's jewellery box was intact and the meat in the freezer still good, he said.

Mr Diack would now wait for the insurance assessors before joining his family on holiday.

The assessors wanted to know what kind of liquid was on the overalls, he said.

The last case of spontaneous combustion of clothing in Taranaki was in late 2000, when a pair of overalls ignited, again with oil on them, after being taken out of the drier.

At that time, fire officers wanted to mount a national campaign to warn the public about the risks of combustion – warnings which now come on most driers.

Previously to that, in 1931, Taranaki was the site of Hawera farmer Richard Buckley and his famous "exploding trousers", a story which then travelled the globe.

Mr Buckley was one of many farmers across New Zealand whose pants randomly ignited because of a chemical in the then-popular ragwort pesticide they all carried about in their pockets.

- © Fairfax NZ News