A woman’s car was ruined when towels she left in the Hyundai self-combusted.
Massage and beauty therapist Leesa Horn left towels with oils over them folded up in her vehicle on Sunday after drying them at the laundromat.
The women, residing in Brisbane, Australia, wrote on Facebook she cleaned her towels and left them in the automobile overnight and got up to go to the gym on Monday morning.
When she unlocked the doors the towels combusted and caught on fire.
“The towels had a little oil left on them still after being cleaned,” she stated.
“(They) combusted in the automobile and when the door was opened, oxygen allow burst (the towels) into flames.
“To top it off I forgot to change over my insurance coverage to my new car a month ago.”
Horn’s Hyundai Accent was completely gutted and ruined.
“It’s a write-off. The entire inside of the car was ruined. Even the roof over the driver’s seat was all melted down to the steering wheel,” she informed Nine News.
Gordon Hemphrey, from Queensland‘s Fire and Emergency Services investigation unit, informed 9 News these kinds of events were uncommon.
He stated heat from the drier was hidden in the towels after Ms Horn folded them and the heat combined with the massage oil still on the towels, triggering them to combust.
“Exactly what happens is the towels cannot dissipate heat from the drier. The oil and the cotton respond and simply develop the heat,” he said.
“As soon as you present oxygen, which was exactly what she’s done when she’s opened the vehicle door, you get flaming combustion, a fire.”
Previously this year a fire sparked at a massage parlour in Hawthorn, 6km east of Melbourne’s CBD.
Fairfax Media addressed hot towels triggered the fire after they were pulled from a drier and left folded on the flooring, where they self-combusted.
