(Photo credit: Field Training Officers, Austin Fire Department)
Spontaneously combusting tortilla chips blamed for two fires
Posted 7:45 AM, July 21, 2018, by Tribune Media Wire
Normally, tortilla chips need a healthy topping of spicy salsa to be described as fiery. Not, as it turns out, in Austin, Texas.
In a Wednesday Facebook post, fire officials described arriving at July 12 factory fire caused by the “spontaneous combustion of tortilla chips. Yes, you read that right.”
The factory had apparently been testing a new way to handle food waste from the making of the chips that “didn’t work out so well.” According to officials, boxes of the food waste suddenly burst into flame, setting fire to multiple pallets. As firefighters responded, they watched as more boxes, separate from the fire, burst into flame on their own.
“Then, to add insult to injury, additional (previously uninvolved) boxes of the same food waste spontaneously combusted just three days later,” the post reads.
Authorities say there was no damage in either fire, both of which were confined to the outside of a building, per CBS Austin.
Firefighters eventually “drowned all of the other crates that had yet to burn, thereby eliminating the risk completely.”
Tortilla chips are big business around these parts. We take them seriously, as they are responsible for holding all manner of very important things—like queso, salsa, nachos, and various other sundry items that are critical to a Texan’s everyday life and well-being. So imagine how distressed we were to be called to a fire at a tortilla chip warehouse earlier this week…not once, but twice!
On the evening of July 12, several of our B-shift crews responded to 6110 Trade Center Drive for the spontaneous combustion of tortilla chips.
Yes, you read that right.
Spontaneous combustion. Of tortilla chips.
The factory in question was trying out a new way to handle the waste from the chips that, suffice it to say, didn’t work out so well. The fire was confined to the exterior of the building and to multiple pallets of food waste, but large cardboard boxes of the same waste continued to ignite while we were on scene!
Then, to add insult to injury, additional (previously uninvolved) boxes of the same food waste spontaneously combusted just three days later.
The solution? The A- and B-shift crews from Engine 35 who were getting off/coming on that day drowned all of the other crates that had yet to burn, thereby eliminating the risk completely.
Thankfully, there were no damages in either case since the fires were on the outside of the building and involved only food waste.
