TORONTO -- A fire inspector in Prince Edward Island believes a pile of clothes spontaneously combusted on a flammable couch, causing a small house fire.
Charlottetown fire inspector Winston Bryan told CTVNews.ca that the fire happened Sunday morning on the second floor of a duplex in the city.
Bryan said in the course of his investigation, he determined the occupants had just completed a load of laundry in the dryer and placed it “tightly packed” on a sectional couch in their living room.
“With this, spontaneous combustion occurred with the radiation from the clothing that was from the dryer,” he said. “One of the occupants exited the building at 6:45 that morning, creating additional oxygen into the room, which ignited the clothing that was in that corner.”
By the time firefighters arrived on the scene, one person in the basement was able to escape, while two others on the upper floors were rescued by a neighbour.
“Rescue had already been completed by quick action of a neighbour placing a ladder at the second-storey window, where the two occupants escaped the fire,” he said in a phone interview.
No one was injured in the fire, but the building sustained smoke damage.
Bryan said the unusual cause of the fire is not entirely unheard of, as he’s seen about five such instances in his career.
“Everything has to be in place for this to happen,” he said.
“When you take clothes out of a dryer, let them cool. Don’t pack them away. Don’t pack them tightly away as soon as you get them out of the dryer.”
He also recommends reading the tags on your clothing to ensure they can be placed in the dryer and checking your smoke alarms.
“The occupants got out for one reason: working smoke alarms,” he said. “They had working smoke alarms and it saved their lives.”
