MH siding fire

[Greg Sellers]

This week I had a fire develop between the floor joist/frame and the hardboard siding along the exterior bottom edge of my 1994 Fleetwood doublewide. Fortunately we caught it early and only charred a small area a few inches wide. There are no wires in this area. No obvious source of ignition. Outdoor temp was about 42 degrees.

I'm interested to know if anyone else has reported such an experience and if it could be that the dry rotted nature of this hardboard siding could have somehow caused a spontaneous combustion.

[Mark Bower]

I've never heard of a fire starting that way, but I suppose it could happen. But if it did, it probably had some moisture in there too. Hay that's baled too wet, and grain that's harvested too wet are very susceptible to spontaneous combustion. So perhaps under the right conditions, wet siding is too.

Mark