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A little earlier today, I was out the back sorting some oil tins and doing a bit of filtering. Every now and then I was getting a whiff of a strange burning smell.
Now I love to play with fire in the literal as well as every other sense of the term, but when I smell smoke for something I haven't set alight, I start getting worried probably more than most people.
I had a check around to make sure that nothing around my place was burning and finding nothing, went back to what I was doing. I kept smelling this smoke for a while till I got a real strong whiff that told me this wasn't coming from anywhere but in my place.
After realising that the smell was not in my shed, as I came out the door I caught sight of a wisp of smoke and saw it was coming from a rag I had been using yesterday wiping up some dribbles from yesterdays filtering efforts and cleaning up spilt oil from the top of some oil tins which were now a couple of meters outside the garage.
The rag was quite oil soaked and I was meaning to wash it to re-use along with some similarly saturated cloths.
I have seen warnings about this very thing here before and I will admit to forgetting about what has been said about treating oily rags carefully. The first pic shows the rag which was a small old towel as it was sitting in a heap in the sun and had started burning from the center out.
What I find particularly frightening is the fact today isn't even what I would call a hot day even if it is very warm in the sun. Air temp would be under 30 and there is a slight haze ( from bushfires I think) and a very gentle breeze blowing. The rag was also partially shaded and there was nothing around it to reflect any other light onto it. The oil I had been wiping up with it was Canola. Had it been a hot day, this rag would have been in flames Hours ago no doubt.
Seeing a smouldering rag you have left behind and the realization of what could have happened if it weren't for some dumb luck in you being in the right place at the right time has certainly instilled a lesson I'll not forget again.
Luckily the rag was sitting on an empty tin and far enough away from anything else to make the chance of burning anything remote, but this was only through good fortune, not planning. The results of this rag catching alight if it were sitting on a full plastic drum may have been entirely different. The resulting fire may have traveled with the flowing , burning oil or the heat from 20L of oil really taking off could have easily caught a lot of other things alight.
So, be careful people, sloppy practices we may have got away with over winter now pose a real and potential danger to homes and property in the warmer weather.
I'll be having a serious rethink about what I do with these oily rags from now on and be a lot more selective about where and how I leave them.
Now I love to play with fire in the literal as well as every other sense of the term, but when I smell smoke for something I haven't set alight, I start getting worried probably more than most people.
I had a check around to make sure that nothing around my place was burning and finding nothing, went back to what I was doing. I kept smelling this smoke for a while till I got a real strong whiff that told me this wasn't coming from anywhere but in my place.
After realising that the smell was not in my shed, as I came out the door I caught sight of a wisp of smoke and saw it was coming from a rag I had been using yesterday wiping up some dribbles from yesterdays filtering efforts and cleaning up spilt oil from the top of some oil tins which were now a couple of meters outside the garage.
The rag was quite oil soaked and I was meaning to wash it to re-use along with some similarly saturated cloths.
I have seen warnings about this very thing here before and I will admit to forgetting about what has been said about treating oily rags carefully. The first pic shows the rag which was a small old towel as it was sitting in a heap in the sun and had started burning from the center out.
What I find particularly frightening is the fact today isn't even what I would call a hot day even if it is very warm in the sun. Air temp would be under 30 and there is a slight haze ( from bushfires I think) and a very gentle breeze blowing. The rag was also partially shaded and there was nothing around it to reflect any other light onto it. The oil I had been wiping up with it was Canola. Had it been a hot day, this rag would have been in flames Hours ago no doubt.
Seeing a smouldering rag you have left behind and the realization of what could have happened if it weren't for some dumb luck in you being in the right place at the right time has certainly instilled a lesson I'll not forget again.
Luckily the rag was sitting on an empty tin and far enough away from anything else to make the chance of burning anything remote, but this was only through good fortune, not planning. The results of this rag catching alight if it were sitting on a full plastic drum may have been entirely different. The resulting fire may have traveled with the flowing , burning oil or the heat from 20L of oil really taking off could have easily caught a lot of other things alight.
So, be careful people, sloppy practices we may have got away with over winter now pose a real and potential danger to homes and property in the warmer weather.
I'll be having a serious rethink about what I do with these oily rags from now on and be a lot more selective about where and how I leave them.
quent happening. This guy appreciates your meaningful warning.
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