FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS > Fire Investigation
Unusual Cause of a fire
jayjay:
See this link for an unusual cause of fire
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2229935/That-water-strong-stuff-Blaze-breaks-liquor-store-sunlight-ignites-vodka-bottles-shop-window.html
SamFIRT:
Don't believe it ... there is another cause ... it just has not been discovered as yet. There is just not enough information in the sensational article to form an opinion as to what.
Tom W:
Ok sensational headline but what they actually mean is that the sunlight through the bullet proof glass and the vodka bottles magnified the rays and burnt the cardboard. That seems a bit more likely right?
Golden:
Another similar case in Hertfordshire recently as reported by the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-20264972
SamFIRT:
Whilst it is possible for sunlight to be focused to heat a point to the auto-ignition temperature of cardboard, (as we all know, as we have played with magnifying lenses as children), in my experience, it is not as prevalent as one would suppose. The sun has to be shining.... the rays have to be focused to a point and not diffused; this relates to the shape of the lens and the focal length of the lens. The item to be ignited has to have sufficient air supply.
In this case the gentleman in the article states: 'We have shades on the windows. We'll pull them down on sunny days to protect the wine on the shelves, never thinking it would ever start a fire...”.
It won’t. Not if the shades are down it won’t. Does he mean the shades were not down on the day in question? Was it sunny? Where was the sun in the sky? What would be the focal length of a full bottle of vodka? Where would the ignition point be in relation to the above. How much does the window glass affect the above? What other ignition sources would there be at the point of ignition? What else does the CCTV show?
I would be looking further myself. But then we don’t have all the evidence.
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