mixing kitty litter and... kaboom?

[madwabbit]

So apparently we had a small fire this weekend and they are blaming some combination of kitty litter in our trash receptacle as the culprit. Kitty litter plus X is spontaneously combustible??

Internet searches regarding kitty litter + X = combustible return no verifiable results- ie; no video or sciency-discussions. (and if I wasn't on every ABC agency watchlist already, I am now. )


Anyhow, the most likely combination was bleach (we use a lot of it)- but my science experiment to test theory yielded unimpressive results. The internet has all these myths about vegetable oil, etc, but I'm waving the BS flag. Our security footage shows it seemingly "spontaneously combusting" as a small fire and growing into a monster in just a few minutes...

We use kitty litter for small spills in some areas, and our maintenance crew loves bleach so we are presuming that was it, but apparently not. The fire marshall swore that either bleach or cooking oil (possible as well, just highly unlikely considering where fire started) was a recipe for disaster... I'm skeptical.

Skip the "Yah my uncle bob told me so" stuff- the internet is full of that crap. Since I cannot replicate the theory, we are still assuming arson and investigating as such. (camera angle is iffy)

I was asked to provide the fire marshall and chief of police a copy of the video for training purposes etc... but I'm more concerned with finding out what the heck caused it so it doesn't happen again. This time luckily it only cost us a few grand.

 

[mike84z28]

What was the kitty litter used for ? Was it used to absorb some other chemical ?

 

[madwabbit]

What was the kitty litter used for ? Was it used to absorb some other chemical ?

yeah, we use it for motor oil spills and random warehouse-y "general" spills. We don't sell pool chemicals or anything though so its either some mystery combination, or a very well executed arson tidbit from someone familiar with my security camera viewing areas.

 

[Leonidas]

I've seen motor oil combust on rags. But only in direct sunlight.

Maybe, if the litter has some cellulose or rag content. But then there's the sunlight question. Besides, i thought kitty litter has a high clay content?

 

[madwabbit]

the kitty litters we sell are all clay based, i checked every brand that we use. so its not that.

and this was in a 400,000 sq ft building at 1:00am. Temperature was probably 80 tops.

My research has panned out a few possibilities, but as much as I'd love to blame arson our warehouse manager said this has happened before. So apparently there is some unlucky combination that we are just unaware of. dunno.

 

[Hitman]

Cooking oils(as well as tung and linseed Oils) have long been known
for their spontaneous heating abilities.

The bleach plays no part.

There simply needs to be enough oxygen to allow a reaction
but not enough air flow to allow the heat to escape.
The oil and time does the rest.

 

[madwabbit]

Cooking oils(as well as tung and linseed Oils) have long been known
for their spontaneous heating abilities.

The bleach plays no part.

There simply needs to be enough oxygen to allow a reaction
but not enough air flow to allow the heat to escape.
The oil and time does the rest.

are you implying that cooking oil on its own merit will spontaneously combust?

 

[Hitman]

are you implying that cooking oil on its own merit will spontaneously combust?

No, not on it's own, but as I described with a source to burn.

 

[madwabbit]

mystery mixture/substance was in a trash receptical that had bits of paper, cardboard, and pallet chunks in it. So pretty much an ideal fire pit... the mystery is what caused ignition.

 

[Hitman]

Was cooking oil not present in the trash can?

 

[madwabbit]

Was cooking oil not present in the trash can?

shrug. possibly. thats the mystery- it could have been anything. It was in a "salvage" area, so anything that got busted would be tossed in there to be processed. The only certainty is that our maintenance crew cleans with bleach (rather heavily), so I presumed that was a contributor. In all honesty, I haven't the slightest Fing clue what it could have been.

 

[Hitman]

Well bleach is made up of Sodium Hypochlorite which is a strong oxidizing agent.
Thus it can assist in providing the oxygen without the draft I mentioned earlier.
It doesn't need to be present for a spontaneous heating event though.

 

[sawgrass]

Someone put in a call to "Mr. Wizard".

.

 

[russinbr]

Motor oil and bleach in the right concentrations will ignite.

 

[madwabbit]

Motor oil and bleach in the right concentrations will ignite.

thats a possible combination for this area, just highly unlikely.

 

[Leonidas]

Motor oil and bleach in the right concentrations will ignite.

Without an external heat source as a catalizing factor?

 

[mike84z28]

Thats a scary situation. I have seen Bleach mixed with certian OTHER THINGS react and give off lots of heat, but enough for ignition ? Im not sure. Hope you find the source !

 

[madwabbit]

Thats a scary situation. I have seen Bleach mixed with certian OTHER THINGS react and give off lots of heat, but enough for ignition ? Im not sure. Hope you find the source !

yeah, as stated the bin that this started in had little pieces of shredded paper, cardboard, pallet chunks - it was literally an ideal fire waiting for ignition. This bin sat undisturbed for ~4 hours indoors before the fire started.

 

[Hitman]

Without an external heat source as a catalizing factor?

Motor Oils do not polymerize.

 

[Vermiform]

Pool shock and brake cleaner will combust FWIW.