[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >>> >>> > >Baled wool is skirted first. That would give the wool time to dry >out. I don't know about it being able to grab enough water from the >air, to get wet enough to spontaneously combust. > > Spontaneous combustion is caused when there is moistire present in an environment where there is no air. The anaerobic bacteria multiply, causing heat which cannot escape, and it will smolder until it comes in contact with air, when it will burst into flame. This happens frequently in compost heaps, or piles of green cut grass left to rot. Anything combustible, if piled or packed in quantity to keep air out and insulate the center can catch fire this way.
>I find the idea of baled wool catching on fire, to be interesting. >For a brief time we debated the idea of building a home, using baled >straw. I was reluctant, because I see straw as being a flammable >material. Easily flammable, I should say. > > We built a strawbale structure after doing lots of research on this. The very thing that can cause bales of straw to spontaneously combust if piled up wet, will also keep it fireproof. The fact that it is packed so tightly that air cannot get inside keeps it safe if it is not wet. A single strawbale-width wall will not spontaneously conbust, because it narrow enough to dissipate the heat caused by any bacterial action. It will rot from the inside, however. If you keep it dry, it can't burn from an outside heat source, because fire can't exist in a vacuum. Strawbale walls have survived forest fires. A pile of strawbales, allowed to get wet, or baled when wet or too green, can combust from the inside, and the same can be said of a bale of wool...wool bales are pretty durn large, and we all know what a great insulator wool is. Lynn C Seattle To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
