# Potting Soil burns down home **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 20, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130 "2008-07-20T04:30:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130/1 "2008-07-20T04:30:15Z")
A pot of soil combusted like hay sometimes does. I’ve seen a hay stack burning from this. Who would expect their house to burn down, because the potting soil started on fire. Remember this story because I think you’ll see it need debunking in years to come as not an urban legend. [Burn baby burn.](http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/07/18/Potting_soil_fire_destroys_home/UPI-73621216422101/) ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130/2 "2008-07-20T12:52:54Z")
Lovely – so, potting mix can not only give you pleuro-pnuemonia, but also incinerate everything you own. That stuff must have become damn hot under extraordinary conditions to ignite, though. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130/3 "2008-07-20T13:05:07Z")
I’m not really too surprised about this. Almost all potting soil has changed over to lots of ground bark and nitrogen fertilizer in the mix to counter all that bark. The prefect material to heat up and combust. I think a brand name change is in order. Hell Soil ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130/4 "2008-07-20T14:25:37Z")
Well, we already have Hell’s Pizza. Some gardening supply stores could set up shop right next door. ---
**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130/5 "2008-07-20T14:29:55Z")
There’s a big arbatorium and gardening facility in Hell, Norway. Just saying. This may or may not be a plot by Norwegian satanists to slot off those damn vegetarians. Only time and the sound of raucous laughter from my roomate will tell. ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130/6 "2008-07-20T14:42:13Z")
Wow- this just happened at my house recently. We came home from our July 4th fireworks show and found our large potted palm on fire! The whole plastic pot had melted down to the sidewalk and the dirt was smoldering, with a small flame still glowing near the sidewalk. It was the small flame that caught my eye as we drove up to the house. We assumed it was started from a wayward firework ash, but that didn’t really seem so likely as there are not alot of kids or people shooting fireworks in the neighborhood. Stangely, the palm is still growing pretty well except for a couple of branches that were wilted. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130/7 "2008-07-20T15:43:59Z")
This is going to be the funniest recall to date. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potting-soil-burns-down-home/457130/8 "2008-07-21T02:28:15Z")
:eek: :eek: :eek: :::gives fisheye to newly-repotted peperomia in the bathroom::: On the plus side: if the stuff _does_ combust, this would seem to sterilize the soil so that [Legionnaire’s Disease](http://www.google.com/search?q=potting+soil+pneumonia&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) is no longer an issue!