Newspaper Headline: "Charcoal stored in an attic combusts, causes fire in Lincoln home"

Match light.

If the charcoal bag had a hole and dust leaked onto a strong oxidizer like saltpeter, it's possible that static electricity or something hot could ignite it.  Unlikely but technically possible.  Remember, charcoal is a strong reluctant (fuel) and also an ingredient in gunpowder.

Checked my attic, have neither windows or mirrors.

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

@caliking is effed

That’s why I don’t keep my lump in the attic...

I took a look at a home on that block of the fire.  It looks like that is an older area with the homes built in the 40s.  I'd bet the attic was converted into living space.

The weather over Lincoln during that time period was in the high 80s.  And it appears to be a weekend occurrence.

Maybe he was a lump saver, and recycled some used "cold" lump back in the bag?  But why bring it upstairs?  I'm guessing storage.

Sunlight somehow burning a hole in a bag is just too obscure...  I bet it was a human.  occams razor.

Charcoal filter for hydro grow operation 

northGAcock said:

So old Abe was a egger?

😂😂

Looks like it!

dbCooper said:

More information... I spoke with a Lincoln Fire Captain this morning, Bill Moody.  He stated in his 35 years of experience this is a first for him.  He did not work this fire but quizzed the inspector who made the determination, as he was skeptical of the conclusion.

Turns out the folks living in the house had been there 3-4 years and never ventured into the attic.  Previous owners left the charcoal, which was pulverized and underneath a pile of clothing and blankets.  It was relatively warm day, upper 80's.  There were no electrical circuits or other sources of ignition in the area.  Apparently an unfortunate set of rare circumstances.

I relayed that I keep from 50-150 pounds of lump on hand at any given time, stacked in a outbuilding.  That is nothing to be concerned about.

It still takes 670F to light off carbon......that's double what it takes to light off firewood, or 200F+ higher than paper.  

Seems like an easy thing for them to blame.

Edit to add.......we send off samples of fines years ago for a "self-heat test".  It's to get around HAZMAT shipping of bulk charcoal.  There's a bag size limit that if more than 30-40#, then charcoal falls under section 4.2 unless you have an exemption.  So they took these samples and put them in an calibrated oven for certain temps and durations, and measured to see if the temp went up in the over and/or the weight of the charcoal went down (thus showing if the charcoal fines were burning.)  I remember one was 280F for 24 hrs.  The temp in the sample varied by 5F over that 24 hrs......so no burning and we got the exemption to ship 20 tons at a time in a bulk trailer.

It was not over 300F+ in that attic, nor anywhere near the 600F+ it takes to light off charcoal.  Lump charcoal is just wood--and lumber has a lower kindling temp than charcoal since it still contains volatiles, tar, liquors, and/or chemicals (if treated.)  The trusses, joists, etc would have been burning before the charcoal allegedly lit off.

Now if these were briquettes, totally different story since they contain sawdust, anthracite, sodium nitrate, and all kinds of other crap that is not carbon and that can react with other stuff.  

 

We all think lump when we hear charcoal. Most people mean charcoal briquettes when they say charcoal. So I assume the news article was about briquettes.