It's a danger with which wood flooring contractors are all too familiar: improper storage of sanding dust. This time, it was a pair of DIYers in Geelong, Australia, that bore the brunt of a sanding dust fire.
Recently, after finishing a DIY wood floor project with a belt sander, the homeowners stored it inside a bag full of the sanding dust, and they stored all that inside a detached laundry structure on their property, according to the Geelong Advertiser.
After the heat from the sander caused the dust to ignite, a passing jogger noticed the fire and alerted the area's County Fire Authority, which prevented the blaze from reaching the property's main structure. "It didn't do a lot of damage, but it had a fair bit of potential for something worse," the authority's Gerry Verdoorn said.
