Posted By: Gary Date: Tuesday, 4:54 p.m.

A friend of mine, who prides himself on being... thrifty, stores his half full paint cans, varnish, paint thinner, acetone, etc in a large locker on his 41' ketch. He also stores dirty rags, clean rags, tools, pieces of un-finished projects, and everything else imaginable in there.

Eventually, spontaenous combustion finally occured, and a fire started. Naturally it was in the wee hours, with no one around. as the fire warmed the locker, the heat build-up in the locker began to cause the lids on the solvent cans to pop open, fueling the fire.

Finally a passing mortorist saw the fire, called 911, and the fire department responded. The boat was located in a marina, as far as possible from land, making it difficult for the fire fighters to get any equipment to the boat.

By this time flames could be seen through the boats ports, and large amounts of smoke were coming out the vents.

Just as the fire fighters succeeded in breaking into the boat, the fire suddenly went out! It seems my friend had recently changed his fire extinguishers, and being thrifty, he had kept the old ones - and stored them in the locker with all the flammables. As the fire heated the locker, the plastic nozzles on the fire extinguishers melted releasing the chemicals and putting out the fire. I'd say that dumb luck saved his boat from very major damage, and luckily no one was injured. He learned a very expensive lesson.

Messages In This Thread

What fuels do you use? Explosion at sea and the prevention thereof. --

Hopefully after Grant heals up, he will provide additional clues...though --> -- -- Tuesday, 1:15 p.m.

Fuels I carry... -- -- Tuesday, 12:44 p.m.

I guess we have most of them... -- -- Tuesday, 10:48 a.m.

Yeah, we have all of that plus paint thinner, adhesive removers, acetone, MEK, TCE, Stoddard solvent for winches, etc.(pic) -- -- Tuesday, 11:17 a.m.

You are here --> A friend of mine, who prides himself on being... -- Gary --

Thanks, I have an old fire extinguisher. I think I'll store it in the explosives locker!(nm)(pic) -- -- Tuesday, 5:02 p.m.