"Fire investigators sifted through the charred remains of a destroyed Mendota Heights [Minnesota] home last week, searching for what sparked the blaze."It appears it was most likely caused by spontaneous combustion in a flowerpot on the deck," city Fire Chief John Maczko said this week.
Maczko said the potting soil — made up of peat moss, vermiculite, fertilizer and other ingredients — had heated up in its plastic pot after several days of high temperatures and humidity. On July 8, he said, the combination ignited. Wind fanned the fire. Maczko said the blaze melted the pot and a plastic table, which collapsed onto the deck. The fire then spread to the house...
St. Paul Fire Department investigator Jamie Novak, a past president of the state chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators, said he has found two cases of spontaneously combusting flowerpots during his 24-year career, which includes work for the state fire marshal's office...
In May 2007, investigators determined that an outdoor flower box with decaying vegetation and potting soil with high peat moss content caused a house fire in Edina, city Fire Marshal Tom Jenson said...
Two years ago, spontaneous combustion ignited a flowerpot stored in the rafters of an Inver Grove Heights garage, Maczko said.
Roseville Fire Chief Richard Gasaway said that two years ago a bag of potting soil caught fire on the patio of an apartment building...
In an incident last winter, he said, stumped Roseville firefighters turned to a thermal imaging camera to find the source of a burning smell inside an apartment building.
"We swept the camera across the apartment and came across this bag of potting soil. It showed up as being hot," he said. "They went over to it, touched it and it was hot inside."
Gasaway said he knows of several cases in which his crews dug into piles of backyard compost and found smoldering ashes...
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