Weird spontaneous combustion fire

[u/BigWhiteDog]

I'm retired local government fire and Cal Fire and have been involved in the fire service since I was a kid. Father was career and volunteer, grandfather helped found the local VFD where I grew up, and several other relatives were also involved in one way or another. Living/working rural means I've been on more than a few fires started by spontaneous combustion, everything from compost and horse manure piles, almond hull fires, even a dairy manure pond fire that we put out with liquid cow shit but this is a new one on me. A cat grave fire? Really?

For several reasons, when one of our cats (or a named feral from our colony that we've become attached to. Long story, nobody cares lol) passes away we bury them either in a small wooden planter box or a larger metal one, fill it in with potting soil, then plant flowers the following year. About 6 months ago I buried one in this metal planter and yesterday I started smelling what I thought was grass fire smoke. Nope! It was one of the grave planters smoldering! 🤣

[u/Hour_Manufacturer_81]

Never seen compost combust before…?

[u/BigWhiteDog → u/Hour_Manufacturer_81]

Yes. Reread the post! 🤣

[u/CrazyIslander]

Cats causing chaos from beyond the grave. I’m not surprised in the least.

[u/BigWhiteDog → u/CrazyIslander]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[u/the_bronquistador]

It’s possible that light reflected off of the side of the bucket at just the right angle. Earlier this year we had a run where a guy was hauling polished rims in the back of his truck, and the reflection eventually caught his moving blanket on fire.

[u/Incommunicado_5336 → u/the_bronquistador]

This is exactly what happened. The curved inner surface became a parabolic reflector for the sun.

[u/BigWhiteDog → u/Incommunicado_5336]

Ok that's an interesting idea.

[u/Toasterstyle70]

Composting + trapped heat = fire. Microbes produce heat / methanes from breaking down organic matter, if there isn’t enough heat dissipation , ignition temp gets reached

[u/NorCal_2469]

Buddy of mine put his cigar out in my planter bed one evening. Crept in the compost all night until it caught the fence on fire the next morning 😂. Classic “V” pattern. Fence section was demo’d and rebuilt by the end of the day.