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It took more than 30 hours for sailors to put out a dryer lint fire aboard the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford last week (www.nytimes.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/news@beehaw.org
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[–] 3 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

That's nuts. It's hard for me to imagine a fire that after a whole day isn't put out but also hasn't broken totally out of control and destroyed the ship.

I mean... 30 hours? Imagine issuing a status update after 20 hours of continuous fire fighting and being like, 'Well, we think it's under control... It's not growing anymore. How long until it's out? I don't know, I'm pretty sure we're past the half way point.'

Crazy.

Also, I wonder how it started? Was someone sneaking a cigarette? Did someone get stir crazy and start playing with matches? Weird AF.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    dryer lint fires tend to happen most often by the lint not getting cleaned out, and getting squished into the internals and coming in contact with the dryer heating elements and igniting. Lint is basically a perfect tinder material, because it burns fast and hot. You can actually save your dryer lint to use for campfires. in my experience, it's nearly as good as char cloth.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Few years back I saved the dryer lint over a year and compressed it and gave it to a sister as starter logs to use at her cottage.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    If you're feeling extra frugal: save the last bit of wax from your candles, stuff the dryer lint into the pockets of an empty paper egg carton, melt the wax down, and then pour that over the lint. Once it cools you have a dozen fire starters that will happily burn for like 5 minutes each.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    Wow. I knew lint is flammable, but I kinda assumed spontaneous ignition in a dryer was a myth. Good to know.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    Oh no it's super flammable. You can make fire starters with that shit. Last week my appointment complex insisted on cleaning out my dryer everything with a really cool vacuum, and I was sick, but let them. Best not to catch the whole building on fire. Yeah it's a risk for sure.

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