Alabama Woman Warns of Fire Hazard from Common Landscaping Material

"I just happened to be outside. Thank God, my house didn't burn down!" That's what one Alabama woman said after a common landscaping material caught fire in a flower garden next to her house. Now, she wants to warn others that under the right conditions, common mulch can combust on it's own.

Photo byAndrew GainesonUnsplash

"I know it sounds crazy," said Sandra R., a resident of north Alabama, "but, none of us smoke cigarettes and there was nothing that could have set this fire. By the time I noticed the smoke, the fire was going pretty good. I'm just grateful I was home that day!"

What Sandra had in her flower garden and under her shrubs was common red mulch. Around her home, she had covered the ground with several inches of the landscaping material. Experts say that spontaneous combustion of mulch is definently possible under the right conditions. Here's what to be aware of when using this material.

According to Safety Insurance professionals, mulch usually only poses a fire danger when there is a large pile - normally a few feet deep. However, there are conditions that can cause a fire in ordinary flower gardens:

• Mulch that is piled too deeply, more than a few inches, can build up heat and spontaneously catch fire.
• Mulch fires start more readily when the weather is hot and it has been dry for an extended time.
• Factors such as below-average rainfall, dry conditions, warm temperatures, and high winds increase the risk of mulch fires.
• In many mulch fires, the smoldering mulch tunnels under the surface and then breaks out into open flame.

What Causes the Fire? Mulch is dried wood, a highly combustible material. Although fires with mulch are usually caused by discarded cigarettes, mulch can also spontaneously combust. Mulch is an organic material. As it decays, which it does naturally, it can produce small amounts of gases such as methane, alcohol, or ammonia. The decay process also produces heat. Those factors combined are believed to cause spontaneous mulch fires. So, how can you be safe? Safety Insurance recommends the following tips:

• Provide a minimum of an 18-inch clearance between landscape mulch beds and combustible building materials, such as wood, vinyl siding and decks.
• Use non-combustible mulch such as rock or pea stone around gas meters and combustible portions of the structure.
• Provide proper receptacles for smoking materials at all entrances to public buildings and in designated smoking areas. Place them at least 18" away from the building, do not mulch in these areas and remember to regularly empty smoking receptacles.
• Grounds and maintenance crews should be aware when conditions are favorable for mulch fires and increase surveillance of mulch beds.
• Keep mulch beds moist when possible.

Experts also warn that red wood mulch is not the only landscaping material that poses a fire hazard. Service Master Restore says that any type of organic ground cover can be a fire hazard including black mulch, red mulch, ordinary wood chips, pine bark, and pine straw. In their experience at Service Master, pine straw is the most combustible ground cover. Its small size makes it more prone to potentially self-combust from methane gas buildup combined with heat or sunlight refraction. Their most important recommendation to avoid a mulch fire is to keep the mulch bed as shallow as possible, keep it away from exterior walls, and in very hot and dry weather, hose the mulch down with water regularly to keep it moist.

Since her experience, Sandra has some advice for all her friends and neighbors: "With all this super hot and dry weather we keep having in Alabama, and since I had the fire, I'm just telling everyone I know to hose down their mulch and keep it wet." As far as her flower gardens, Sandra says, "When it cools off a little, I'm definitely getting this mulch a little farther away from my house and probably going to replace it with something not flammable like loose rocks. I love my pretty flower gardens, but I love my house more! I'm keeping the gardens, just re-thinking the ground cover that's right next to my house."

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