Alert Marky Mark.

Yeah, right

MY TWISTS ARE REAL

Don't believe it. It's just a ruse to make me clean house.

Is flower power really the answer to the energy crisis?

Rare, but it happens.

I've seen barns burned to the ground by fires started by the decomposition heating in a wet hay bale.

Also seen a massive pile of construction debris burning from the inside from the same cause, that took the better part of a week to extinguish (Southbridge, MA, summer of 2002, I believe).

I've seen barns burned to the ground by fires started by the decomposition heating in a wet hay bale.

Oh absolutely. Gasses build up given enough heat/wind - up they go. Same thing with that box of rags in the shed/basement/garage... if they have any petroleum product on them, are given an environment to 'do their thing' and you've got a claims adjuster on the line (if you're lucky.)

Internal combustion
Multiple personalities
Terror inside of me
A mask of silent agony

Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not widely reported.

buried_alive: Dozens of people spontaneously combust fall asleep with a cigarette in their hands each year. It's just not widely reported.

Or so it's been theorized.

Earlier this summer, I noticed a burning smell... I went around the house looking for the source. Couldn't find anything.

I even stepped outside, I thought it might have been a brush fire, but nothing. Few minutes passed, and the smell just continued. In fact, it was getting worse. I kept looking and looking. I went outside again. Oddly enough, right at the doorway it was strong, but then outside, nothing.

Then I look down. There's a flower pot at the condo entrance, and the dirt in it was smoldering. I thought maybe the neighbors kids had put something in there, but I couldn't tell. It didn't look like anyone put a cigarette in there either. But it was definitely on fire.

I still don't know what it was. Then later on, when I was out on vacation, it happened again. That time it melted the pot a little. Weird.

finnished: Earlier this summer, I noticed a burning smell... I went around the house looking for the source. Couldn't find anything.

I even stepped outside, I thought it might have been a brush fire, but nothing. Few minutes passed, and the smell just continued. In fact, it was getting worse. I kept looking and looking. I went outside again. Oddly enough, right at the doorway it was strong, but then outside, nothing.

Then I look down. There's a flower pot at the condo entrance, and the dirt in it was smoldering. I thought maybe the neighbors kids had put something in there, but I couldn't tell. It didn't look like anyone put a cigarette in there either. But it was definitely on fire.

I still don't know what it was. Then later on, when I was out on vacation, it happened again. That time it melted the pot a little. Weird.



It was a fire flower. Duh.

The article doesn't say whether the claim was paid, but I'd think the cause would fall under homeowner negligence. That State Farm adjuster must have received the "Magnificent Bastard of the Year" award for that one.

Magorn: Mose: Rare, but it happens.

I've seen barns burned to the ground by fires started by the decomposition heating in a wet hay bale.

Also seen a massive pile of construction debris burning from the inside from the same cause, that took the better part of a week to extinguish (Southbridge, MA, summer of 2002, I believe).

Having kept a massive pile of grass clipping at the back of my yard for years and noting the charring and sometimes smoking on the inside when I went to recycle to the lower layers as garden mulch, I believe the wet hay. The Flowers though? Just doesn't seem like enough organic material

While something seemed a little queer to me when I first read it too, think of how jam packed some arrangements you get from the florist are... and they were in a plastic pot which lends itself to insulation the decaying matter which is needed for the material to reach its auto ignition temperature.

It would be REALLY unlikely that someone trying to burn down their house would try to do it like this, and would probably have used a detectable accelerant, anyway. Especially considering the flower pot was outside the house.

Could have been a discarded cigarette or something though, a lot of times there isn't much evidence of that left over.

I lol'd at Design Diva's comment in the article :3

Design Diva "I'm a dead begonia sitting on your deck. Suddenly, the thought of your neglect ticks me off, and I get hot about it. So hot, I burst into flames and burn a hole in your deck. Are you covered? If you have cut rate insurance, you could be fixing this problem yourself...Call me Mayhem."

I had a claim like this when I was an insurance adjuster. A flower pot full of mulch on the south side of a house combusted in the August sun.
Melted the siding and most of the homeowner's Acura.

asleep71: I had a claim like this when I was an insurance adjuster. A flower pot full of mulch on the south side of a house combusted in the August sun.
Melted the siding and most of the homeowner's Acura.

I fear for my... lava rock.

Right, the flowers

Nitrogen fertilizers if used in excessive quantities can ignite if exposed to a heat source, such as direct sunlight. A lease I signed once prohibited the use of fertilizers on potted deck plants, apparently they've had plants catch on fire before.

farking Arkansas...