A fire safety note.

[WZ JUNK]

I would not normally post a link here to another board but this is an important safety note.  I actually had a similar experience and it was not good.  The post was about a spontaneous combustion fire that could happen to any of us.  http://www.garagejournal.com/2017/04/surviving-my-own-stupidity/  This video makes me want to add security cameras and alarms to the shop.  For me, having close personal ties to victim of this near catastrophe makes it more meaningful.  

John

[UGLY OLDS]

That's incredible ....Talk about lucky... He needs to buy some lotto tickets & get in the habit of emptying his shop trash EVERY DAY as he locks up the shop ....

For me , the can is close to the door & power switch's ...It becomes habit after a few days .....

Bob..

[phat46]

That is beyond lucky, that is incredible. ANY and EVERY rag or cloth I put anything flammable on goes outside when I'm done. If I'm not using it again it goes in a metal trash can...with a lid on it. My brother is a city firefighter and the stories about simple things that have started fires are incredible. He was at a fire a half block from my house last week, the people left a kitchen vent fan on and went to bed, it started a fire that burned through the side of the house above the kitchen window. Some passerby saw it at 2:00 a.m. and called it in. My brother said if it had gone two more minutes the house would probably have been lost!

[sirstude]

I agree with you on the going outside the door.  As soon as I finish with any rag (and I usually am talking paper) that has flammable liquid on it, I dump in the driveway.  I have a dirt driveway.  After a couple of days I then toss it in the garbage.  The few cloth rags I use go in a sealed metal can.  Sure never have seen anything like his garbage can going up though.

[enjenjo]

I won't weld or cut for at least 1/2 hour before I go in for the same reason.

Another thing to remember, don't heat or weld around chlorinated brake cleaner, R134, or Freon. Heat causes them to give off Phosgene gas that can poison you, or at least make you sick.

[kb426]

In the early 90's I had a similar exp. I was at Firebird raceway in Az. I'm crew chiefing for my friend. He has a can that he throws dirty rags into next to the trailer side door. He goes off to the tower to get his check, taking the truck and trailer keys with him. I'm sitting outside waiting and I notice smoke coming out the door. Paul Slick is next to us. I tell him he might want to haul * because there's a bottle of compressed nitrogen next to this can that I don't know is what's on fire. He says he has a fire ext. and gives me a 4' prybar. I break into the trailer and put the rag can out. The security people show up and send word to the tower to tell my friend he has a problem. 20 minutes goes by and he comes walking up. He never did hear from any official. On the way back to New Mexico, he steps on the brakes in the gas station and the wiring under the hood bursts into flame. Turns out that the trailer brake wire rubbed a bare spot next to the fuel tank. I use wire cutters to put that fire out. His next birthday, everyone in the family gives him a fire ext. I had one in my trailer but he didn't at that point. I made him buy a spare set of keys before I went with him again. I had no idea that solvent rags could catch fire. We were so lucky that weekend.

[idrivejunk]

That was worth watching!   Linseed oil, wow.

A neighbor had an oily rag fire when I was 10 or so, and I am mindful about that to this day. I have walked into empty shops to find a burning car before, and a trash can, and a supply cabinet. Welding set harness wrap on fire, cig butt swept up and dumped in trash, grinding near supply cabinet with leaky can in it, respectively and all at started at lunch when everybody was gone. None my fault, knock on wood! Don't forget about flammable dust (bondo).

[Beck]

For a few months yet, I am still in charge of shop safety at work. I am going to play that video in our next safety meeting.
Thanks for the tip!

[jaybee]

I have a flammables cabinet and have made it a practice to get rags soaked in flammables spread outside so they can air before disposable. I can see that I need a steel can with a secure cover as well.