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Man loses attic to smoldering mulch
CRYSTAL LAKE, Ill., April 24 (UPI) -- A Chicago-area man has learned a fire that destroyed his garage and attic was caused by smoldering mulch on a garden beside his house.

Joe Buckley, 57, said he and his sons spread the mulch on April 7 at his home in Crystal Lake, Ill., and for the first time in 18 years, put some on the garden near the garage.

Monday morning, the shredded wood chips erupted into flames that spread through the garage and into the attic, causing about $175,000 in damage.

The family escaped without injury.

Fire Battalion Chief Tom Pollnow said his department gets between 10 and 20 calls a year about smoldering mulch, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

He said harmless looking mulch is similar to hay, which can also combust.

"It's basically decaying branches that get shredded," he said. "It can lay there and smolder. It can ignite by itself."

I don't believe it, that is the mulch ignited itself. I'll bet it was more like this story from Connecticut:

Fire Blamed On Tossed Cigarette

Courant Staff Report

April 24 2007

PLAINVILLE -- There were no injuries in a house fire Monday that an official said was caused by a cigarette tossed into a bed of mulch.

Thirty-four firefighters responded to a call to 11 Cassidy Drive just after 4:15 p.m. to put out a fire that had spread from the front of the house to the attic, Fire Chief Ray Swanson said. The firefighters got the fire under control in about 10 minutes.

There was smoke and water damage throughout the home, Swanson said.

One person was at the house when the fire started, but had left by the time firefighters arrived. Swanson said he didn't know who threw the cigarette into the mulch, but that the fire was ruled accidental.

The fire on Cassidy Drive was one of three fires Monday that were caused by people throwing cigarettes into mulch, Swanson said.

Firefighters were called to Webster Bank, 51 E. Main St., at 4:12 p.m. and stopped the fire from spreading to the building. They received a call about a mulch fire at 58 W. Main St., home of Nutmeg Community Television, just before 6:10 p.m. Firefighters also contained that fire to the mulch bed, Swanson said.

House fire is blamed on mulch
Officials suspect spontaneous burst

By Jeff Long
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 24, 2007

Joe Buckley never thought the mulch he spreads every year around his manicured yard could pose a danger.

But a fire that officials blame on spontaneous combustion in mulch that was too close to an attached garage forced Buckley and other family members to flee their home in an upscale subdivision near Crystal Lake early Monday.

did mulch start fire?
Did mulch start fire? (Tribune photo by Stacey Wescott)
April 23, 2007

Fire's aftermath
Fire's aftermath (Tribune photo by Stacey Wescott)
April 23, 2007

Damage was estimated at $175,000.

"The whole thing is surreal," said Buckley, 57, who has lived in the home on Open Gate Road for 18 years.

Spreading mulch around trees, shrubs and other plantings is a rite of spring for Chicago-area homeowners. But Crystal Lake fire officials offer some words of caution: Mulch should not be spread close to buildings.

Fire Battalion Chief Tom Pollnow said his department, which also has responsibility for unincorporated areas near Crystal Lake, gets 10 to 20 calls a year about smoldering mulch, which can spontaneously ignite when enough heat builds up in the shredded bark and wood chips.

"It doesn't happen that often," he said. "It's just one of those things."

Carelessly tossed cigarettes are another cause of mulch fires, though Pollnow said that does not appear to have been the case at Buckley's home.

Landscapers say they have never heard of mulch spontaneously igniting in a 4- to 6-inch-thick layer, which is what Buckley had spread among clumps of ornamental grass next to his garage.

But mulch stored in huge piles, 10 to 20 feet deep, has been known to build up enough heat to start a fire, experts said.

A huge mulch fire near the tiny Texas town of Helotes burned for three months before it died out in March, and authorities have said spontaneous combustion may have caused it.

"Mulch is a wood product," said Tom Kusmerz, owner and landscape architect at the Barn Nursery and Landscape Center in Cary, where Buckley said he purchased his mulch. "It's always in the action of decomposing, so it can heat up and cause spontaneous combustion. But I've never heard of it happening in a case like this."

Spring is an especially busy time in the mulch trade, said Michelle Anderson, co-owner of the Whispering Hills Landscape Center in Cary. Mulch helps the ground retain moisture and blocks weeds.

"People are out freshening up their lawns," she said.

Buckley's mulch was delivered April 5, and he and his two sons spent a few hours the next day spreading it around trees in the back yard. For the first time in several years, he also put down a layer next to the garage.

Buckley trains law-enforcement agencies in interviewing techniques. "Most of my work is in the office, or doing training, so I like being out in the yard," he said.About 1 a.m. Monday Buckley's wife, Patty, smelled smoke.

"At first we thought maybe someone had been burning something outside during the day," Buckley said.

But when he dashed down to the garage, he found it filled with smoke. The couple and their sons, ages 21 and 27, escaped without injury through a patio door and saw flames shooting through the garage roof.

"The entire attic is destroyed," Buckley said. "Never in our wildest dreams did it cross our minds that this could happen."

Pollnow said people should check mulch from time to time. If it is warm, spread it around and water it down, he said.

"Mulch can do that," he said. "It's basically decaying branches that get shredded. It can lay there and smolder. It can ignite by itself. We'll get this periodically, especially in the spring of the year when people are laying fresh mulch."

jjlong@tribune.com