Scary potting soil

Yikes!

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061125/potting_soil_061125/20061125?hub=CTVNewsAt11

Really makes you wonder what was in that potting soil. I had compost piles steam in the cold air due to the heat generated, but catch on fire? It boggles the mind.

I understand it was just the soil that came with a common grocery store flowering house plant that had died they removed the dead plant and stuck the pot with the soil in his work room.

Wow. That is scary. But it's probably the same spontaneous combustion thing that happens to hay bales. Anything organic produces heat as it decomposes. If conditions are just perfect, it will erupt in flames. Kind of the same thing as finding new mushrooms or toadstools growing -- the spore (the potential) is there all along, just waiting for the exact combination of temperature (in this case internal temp, not external) and humidity, etc.

Or it was a demon. One or the other.

;)

According to fire officials it was the combination of the rotting rootball and the drying out of the organic rich potting soil that created the conditions. This seems to suggest that a pot with the remains of a dead plant is most dangerous within a sort time of the plant dying. This is the time most of us set the pot aside waiting for disposal.
I've been sticking my dead herb and decorative peppers pots under my kitchen sink. Probably not a good idea. :)