The fire, I was lucky

I was lucky today, a very near miss to losing the shop, all my tools, my wifes 67 Mustang, two Protruck racers and my 64 Econoline,
I preach shop safety, safety glasses, gloves, jack stands and fire lids on metal trash cans, etc, yet I dropped the ball today.
Working inside and outside the shop, balancing the shop work[desired] with the stain the deck honeydo list[required]. You know the stain drill, brush on the stain, wipe off the rest with clean rag program, "dispose of properly",[seal in the old paint can with the lid hammered on]
Well the big heap of stain soaked rags got dumped into the big black bin that gets rolled out to the street along with this weeks assortment, including several aerosol cans.
Shop stuff can wait a few hours, so into the hours for some lunch and cool air[its been in the mid 30°C all day]. Me and my best buddy[6 year old grandson] settle in for a movie and relax.
2-3 hours go bye and suddenly there is a load banging at the door, its my neighbour Doug, He is hollering your garbage is on fire. he did not know where my hose turn on was, As we bolted to the scene he was told as I grabbed the hose. By this time the flames were about 6-8 feet high, right next to the shop, the neighbours fence and up against one of my Econolines. the flames where quickly extinguished. Sure glad Doug was enjoying  beer on his deck, just happened to be his day off. Sure glad I never went out for parts, who knows what I may have come home to.
I was lucky. Hopefully by my sharing of this near miss and my carelessness makes others take a second look at how they manage safety and disposal at home. I hate going to fund raisers to help guys replace stuff because of this type of mishap and do not one held for me
Play safe out there.

Lucky and thank you for sharing. Could have been much worse. Buy Doug another beer or two!

Thanks for sharing. I just recently brought home garbage cans with lids as well. Grinder sparks go everywhere. And where my grinder goes, so does my garden hose. No shop to catch on fire....but a grass fire will also ruin your day. Thank God you had a neighbor that was close by. Defiantly by him some more beer.

I see you are from Saskatoon as well, do you ever get to Auto Clearing Motor speedway?

Looking for a good time, show and shine, check out Radisson this sunday

Glad you didn't lose your garage.

I always lay rags like that out in the sun to dry or soak them in water in a container.

vern01 wrote:I see you are from Saskatoon as well, do you ever get to Auto Clearing Motor speedway?

Looking for a good time, show and shine, check out Radisson this sunday

.....I haven't been to Auto Clearing Motor Speedway in a long time. S.I.R. is more my speed. Radisson show and shine sounds good, but house chores have cancelled any outings for me for a couple of weeks...or until the wife is done her holidays, which ever comes first...lol.

Big W, your missing out ACMS is away more fun than that straight stuff at SIR, come watch the protrucks run!
You could make Radisson a holiday afternoon outing, nothing like a show and shine for a break from the honey do list!

Glad it wasn't worse, so how did the rags catch on fire?

spontaneous combustion from the stain soaked rags and aerosol spray cans and unsealed paint cans would be my guess...

vanny wrote:spontaneous combustion from the stain soaked rags and aerosol spray cans and unsealed paint cans  would be my guess...

Today for my own amusement, I soaked a couple of rags in the same stain, set them out in a paint can in the driveway while we worked in the shop. About 2-3 hours later they went up in smoke

This is a situation Ive never heard of before, I know certain chemicals will react with some things... So it the combination of the stain and the material the rags are made of?

You were very lucky!

i always worry about dirty oily rags and have a place for them outside the buildings. Glad your property is undamaged