Mars Reports 2015
The Nautical Institute has issued a Mars Report as follows:
After washing the galley tea towels the night watchman put them into the tumble dryer. Once finished drying, approximately 20 towels were stacked in a pile and placed on top of the galley freezer. Between three and four hours later, the night watchman discovered smoke coming from the pile of tea towels. Several tea towels in the very centre of the pile were found to be scorched and smouldering. Cloth contaminated with specific types of oil can spontaneously combust under certain circumstances. Specifically, linseed, rapeseed, safflower (vegetable oil ingredient), and peanut oil are prone to spontaneous combustion. Fish oils are also notorious for self-heating. On the other hand, mineral oils used for lubrication are not prone to self-heating and will not cause spontaneous combustion.
Fires in commercial laundry facilities, hospitals and laundromats have been attributed to the spontaneous ignition of cotton or linen that has been dried and then either stacked while still hot or dumped into bins without cooling.
The oxidation of cotton and linen can be initiated by the laundry process. If the materials are stacked or binned at high enough temperatures (+ 90 C), the heat accumulated in the centre of the pile may be enough to trigger spontaneous ignition. In this case, it is likely that there was some contamination from cooking oil still on the tea towels and enough residual heat from the tumble drying process to start the exothermic reaction that resulted in the scorching. This is initially a slow process, hence the three or four hour delay before smoke was seen.
Lessons learned:
Cotton or linen washing should be spread to cool after mechanical drying, not placed in bins or piles while still hot.
Source: Nautical Institute
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Above Mars Report is edited fromMarine Safety Forum Safety Flash 15-09