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Gardening in Canada

Potting Mix Fire Hazard?

judith5bmontreal

17 years ago

Hi everyone, haven't posted in a while, but today I heard something really weird, and had to see if anyone had any experience with this. On the newscast at noon, they had a story about spontaneous combustion in plastic pots full of dry soil brought in to winter over in some poor guy's basement! This is new to me, but it sure is scary! I have many pots with summer bulbs sitting in my garage (canna, calla, agapanthus,etc) and now I will have to worry about them being a fire hazard. I don't know about you, but my garage has a few things stored in there that could be very dangerous if there was intense heat (maybe not too smart on my part!). Anyone heard of this before? Apparently the firemen said on the report that they had had another case like this last year in western Canada, and that they didn't know what was in the potting mix that would cause it to ignite. Anxiously awaiting your take on this.....

Judith

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Comments (4)

Judy_B_ON
17 years ago
Potting soil contains a lot of organic matter. Just as compost heats up when decomposing, so could potting soil.

I would think that in Montreal, the soil would be too cold to decompose. In any event, you could store your bulbs dry in paper bags instead of in pots.

See the link for a warning from the city of Langley

Here is a link that might be useful: Potting soil fire
peatpod
17 years ago
I also heard the same news cast but also heard of one on the East Coast where the potting soil was stored in a small metal container (open). I guess it was the fertilizer that really fueled the fire

Laura
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bonniepunch
17 years ago
I had never heard of this before - after reading about, it makes sense and it is certainly possible... But I think it can't be a very common thing. I think it makes sense to store anything in a manner that minimizes the risk of fire, but I think I'll save my worry energy for more likely dangers :-)

BP
judith5bmontreal
Original Author
17 years ago
Bonniepunch, I suppose you are right about it not being a very common thing, but it just made me a little nervous since I do have some pots (mostly clay) with bulbs and soil in them. Maybe this will prompt me to clean out my garage and get rid of some potentially dangerous cans of stuff. And Judy b, I will store all my bulbs dry from now on. Thanks everyone.

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