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Curious Cases

We Didn't Start the Fire

Oct 31, 2025 · 29m

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It has been said that you can't start a fire without a spark, but as Hannah and Dara are about to discover, that's not true! Welcome to the fiery phenomenon of spontaneous combustion, when something can ignite all on its own: no matches, no sparks, no external flame. It happens when certain materials heat themselves up internally through chemical or biological reactions, and if that carried on unchecked and the material gets hot enough, it can eventually ignite itself. This process can occur in various everyday items such as piles of hay or grass clippings, oily rags and in certain instances lithium batteries; but there are also several useful chemical substances that autoignite when they…