Will charcoal self-ignite when wet?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

In the email announcement of new columns today, the link to the “Will charcoal self-ignite if wet?” Staff Report by Una Persson was incorrect. :smack: The correct link is: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mwetcharcoal.html

2

I know not of regular unenhanced wet charcoal self- igniting by spontaneous combustion. However I had a startling experience with match-light charcoal. To be sure, it was under rather extreme conditions - in the Black Rock Desert, NV in the August heat with the charcoal stored outside in the shade under the RV. I opened the bag to load a grill, apparently spilling out vapors emanating from the hydrocarbon ignition enhancement, and caused a very loud explosion that seemed to cover an area of perhaps 400 sqare feet. There was no warning on the bag.

3

And an excellent and fascinating Staff Report it is. I’d take her to task on the charcoal vs. propane bit, but IIRC religious discussions belong to another forum. Still, it makes perfect sense even though I’d never thought about it before.

4

Perhaps a warning like this is needed:

CAUTION: Do not store unopened bag in desert temperatures of greater than 100F for extended periods of time. Do not place face or fingers near bag when opening. Clear the surrounding 400 square ft of all combustible materials like children, people and hairy dogs. Stand back and approach bag cautiously. Do not use match; will self-ignite when opened. Have frozen hot dogs ready before opening bag; they will self-cook by the time your hair has been extinguished. Do not read this warning unless your eyes have been spared the conflagration. Hire people with hooks. For a good time, call 606-4311, ask for Ken. You are a fluke of the universe. Give up.

:eek:

5

I’m not sure if this is a hijack or not. Back in another life, my ex-husband & I docked a boat at a marina just west of the coal dock in Sandusky, Ohio. We frequently saw them hosing down the small mountain of coal waiting to be loaded onto trains for distribution. We assumed it was to keep down coal dust so that all the whiney boaters would have less reason to complain, (after all, the dock had been there first, and if it really upset you, move to a more expensive marina upwind of the dock). So my question is this, should I be expecting to hear about a major fire that wipes out Sandusky, OH soon?

6

Water is often used for dust control at loading terminals, open-pit mines, at docks, and so forth. Generally speaking it’s not a problem if the coal is packed tight to prevent air from getting into the coal, and coals which are not very volatile or wet to begin with (such as bituminous coals and anthracites) typically have little risk of fire. But when a fire does start in coal piles, it typically does not burn quickly or spread very far, such as my example in the article of rail cars and barges being shipped to the power plant with burning coal in one part of the car, but not the other.

One way in which fires are extinguished when they occur in or on large piles, by the way, is by piling more coal on top of the fire and packing it tight to smother it.

7

In The Straight Dope newsletter I get, the link for the story about self-igniting coal went to the previous story (the Human Growth Hormone story).

Here is the correct link:

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mwetcharcoal.html

I, um, don’t actually have any comments on this one. Enjoy!

8

Do Not Taunt Super Happy Fun Charcoal.

9

You’re partly right, Tower Dweller. In the Straight Dope Newsletter you & I get, there is, indeed, an article on charcoal. However, it is not by Cecil, but by Una, which makes it a 2nd-class :wink: article, or Staff Report. In the correct forum, it has been noted here.

Check out that thread for warnings on Super Happy Fun Charcoal. :smiley:

10

FYI I don’t compose or send the mailing out, so I’ve contacted those who do to tell them of the incorrect URL. Don’t know if they will re-send it or just assume people figure it out.

I can be 2nd-Class to Cecil. I could even be 3rd class. But I won’t do steerage again, damn it. Boilers are for playing with, not for sleeping under…

11

[Mod hat on].

Before everyone goes bonkers trying to figure out the order of posts so far in this thread, I merged a mistakenly opened thread in Cecil’s column with this(the correct thread) to the excellent report by Staff member Una. I didn’t want to just delete the posts in Comments on Cecil’s Columns.

Just go with the flow.

samclem, GQ moderator

[Mod hat off]

12
      • If charcoal will spontaneously ignite when wet I don’t know, but other organic matter can, under the wright/wrong circumstances: in the St Louis area, there was a fire at a home. The people there had picked some nuts (I don’t remember, walnuts or some other human-edible kind) and put them in a metal bucket, and then put a metal lid over the bucket to keep their dogs from eating the nuts. They left this bucket in their shed, and afterwards the fire investigators detimined that it had spontaneously combusted and started a fire that spread to their house. I tried searching the local newspaper’s site but got nothing. This happened just in the last couple years, I’m pretty sure.
        ~
13

Organic matter (i.e., edible by bacteria) introduces an additional factor.

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But doesn’t it reduce her credibility to just about nil? :wink:

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Oh, in questions about grilling, of course. In questions about the coal (or charcoal) itself, not at all.

16

I actually am a grilling goddess, just not with charcoal. I love the taste of charcoal-grilled food, if done properly. Sadly, so few can do it properly, and that includes myself.

17

Well, my standard retort to the “heat-not-meat” argument is that the taste of the wood or charcoal is essential to grilling or barbequeing. If you use a propane grill, I say you may as well just use the broiler in your gas oven. The off taste is more often an artifact of the lighter fluid (if you use it at all) than of the charcoal.

Still, this is more a topic for GD.

18

There are some things you just need a man to do. :stuck_out_tongue:

19

Technically, can’t the same thing be said about chocolate, too?

Well, except for the mercury and uranium part.

I hope.

20

True. One could also say the same thing about the human body…

Including the mercury and uranium part. :eek: