Fire safety experts say to keep these items away from an open flame.
Key Points
- Recognizing flammable items in your home can help prevent accidents and keep your family safe from fires.
- Everyday items like dust, dried flowers, and mothballs can ignite quickly if stored near heat sources.
- Store and handle flammable household items carefully, keeping them away from open flames or high heat to reduce risks.
As you go about your daily life, it’s important to recognize the flammable items in your home so that you and your loved ones stay safe. Even when everything appears calm and orderly, there could be some household staples in plain sight that can become too hot for comfort.
”Many fire hazards aren’t usually explosive chemicals in bottles with skull labels. More often, they are mundane products that we allow to be stored unsafely,” says Lo Choe, owner at Aura Fire Safety. She warns that these inconspicuous items can turn a small accident into a disaster.
To help keep your home protected from frightening fire emergencies, we consulted with fire safety experts to learn about the surprising, highly flammable items in your home. Read on to brush up on your fire safety, and ensure you keep the following things far away from a fire source.
Meet Our Expert
- Louis Swan, partner at House Fire Solutions
- Lo Choe, owner at Aura Fire Safety
- Sharon Cooksey, former fire safety educator at Kidde
Related: 12 Fire Hazards That May Be Hiding in Your Attic
Moth Balls
While mothballs have been largely phased out due to their highly flammable properties, you may still have them in your drawers, protecting your cashmere sweaters from damage. However, these little, inconspicuous balls are highly flammable.
“Moth balls [contain] a chemical that is flammable and used in manufacturing explosives,” says fire safety expert Louis Swan. When stored in confined spaces – especially near a furnace or other sources of heat—mothballs can ignite and burn dangerously. It’s safer to try non-toxic mothball alternatives, such as lavender sachets or sealable bags.
Dust
For something so difficult to see, dust is highly flammable. Dust contains fibers from clothing, hair, wood, paper, and pet fur – all things that can ignite. “When dust accumulates near a heat source, like heaters, vents, or electrical outlets, it can ignite more easily than you might expect,” says fire safety educator Sharon Cooksey. “The fact is that fine particles catch fire much quicker because they react with oxygen much faster than solid materials.” Keep your home swept and vacuumed to minimize fire risk.
Shoe Polish
While extremely useful for keeping your shoes shiny, shoe polish contains flammable chemicals and charcoal dust. The mixture of petroleum-based solvents and waxes makes it prone to igniting quickly when exposed to high heat. For this reason, use your shoe polish in well-ventilated areas away from heat sources, including open flames. Even the rags used to apply your shoe polish should be stored in water or laid flat to dry.
Floral Arrangements
Life gets busy, and once-fresh floral arrangements can dry in the vase without you even noticing until after the fact. Or maybe you decorated your house with dry floral arrangements or elegant pampas grass. On the surface, these beautiful adornments don’t look to be a fire hazard, but as they dry up, they become more vulnerable to a flame or blast of heat.
“They’re extremely flammable due to being completely dried out with little to no moisture left in the material,” says Choe. Even placing it within 2 feet of a fireplace or candle could cause the entire thing to ignite in moments, she warns. Because these arrangements tend to be tall and lightweight, the fire can be pulled upwards into curtains and ceiling finishes.
Potato Chips
Believe it or not, but fried potato chips are highly flammable. “So much so that they can be used as a fire starter,” Cooksey says. Potato chips are essentially thin slices saturated in oil. The combination of the starchy potato and fat means that they heat up and ignite quickly when exposed to flame. The oil provides fuel, and the thin structure allows them to ignite and stay lit longer than you might expect. That said, your favorite potato chips are only dangerous when close to an open flame.
Some Acoustic Home Panels
Acoustic home panels are often added to rooms, such as home movie theaters or practice rooms, where the sound tends to bounce off the walls. Unfortunately, if not fire-rated, these panels can be highly flammable. Typically made of polyurethane that burns quickly and intensely, they billow dense black smoke that can fill a room with zero visibility in seconds, warns Choe. “On walls up high, they enable fire to travel across vertical surfaces more quickly,” she says. “In small rooms, that can mean disaster for occupants in that room fast.” Look for treated panels that have a Class A rating.
Powdered Coffee Creamer
Certain non-dairy powdered creamers pose a fire risk when exposed to an open flame. Cooksey notes that these products are often high in fat, which acts as a fuel source. Additionally, the fine particles are easily surrounded by oxygen, posing a combustion risk when close to an open flame. Never store or handle powdered creamer near open flames or significant sources of heat. The same applies to powdered sugar.
Old Ping Pong Balls
Ping pong balls are coated with a highly flammable material that burns quickly and can be explosive, says Swan. This is mainly limited to the older celluloid ping-pong balls, which were traditionally made from nitrocellulose. These ping pong balls were known to burst into flames and emit a lot of smoke. Modern plastic balls are less flammable. However, when exposed to flame, they can still melt and burn.
Steel Wool
That mound of tightly wound steel wool you use to clean your pots and pans can act as a fire starter. “Technically, steel wool is classified as a ‘flammable solid,’ which OSHA defines as a ‘material that is liable to cause fire through friction, absorption of moisture, spontaneous chemical change, retained heat from manufacturing or processing, or that can be ignited readily,'” says Cooksey. When exposed to sparks, heat, or an open flame, steel wool will burn, so keep it away from your stovetop. Additionally, never store it near loose batteries, as it can ignite by simply touching the terminals, she notes.
Oil Diffusers
The liquid in many oil diffuser devices is flammable. Choe explains that concentrations of hot vapor can build up if left next to halogen lamps or on warm surfaces. Because fires start more easily with vapors than they do with liquid, that small spark you get from malfunctioning wiring can ignite that vapor cloud instantly. You don’t need to get rid of your oil diffusers, but use caution when placing them in your home.
Crayons
Crayons are made from paraffin and are deceptively flammable. When lit, they can burn for 15 to 30 minutes, with the wrapper acting as a wick. “They’re not spontaneously combustible, but when exposed to a direct flame, they can ignite and sustain a flame,” says Cooksey. Better to keep your crayons tucked away for a rainy day, far from any active flames. (Though, this does mean they can be used to make a candle in an emergency!)
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