Excerpts from Fox59.com:
The Waukegan Fire Department is urging people to not keep hand sanitizer in their cars due to the risk of fire after firefighters responded to a car fire Thursday afternoon. A preliminary investigation revealed the fire appeared to be caused by a small bottle of hand sanitizer that was left on the dashboard.
“The owner had been refilling with 80% alcohol sanitizer that was supplied by their employer. It appears sunlight shining through the windshield onto the sanitizer was enough to cause ignition,” the fire department said on Facebook.
By the time firefighters arrived, the fire was out. They said the owner sprayed some water through a hole in the windshield but it likely was extinguished due to lack of oxygen.
“The Waukegan Fire Department is aware of other incidents similar to this happening as more and more people are using a higher alcohol concentration hand sanitizer due to our current pandemic,” the department said. “As the heat of summer is near we STRONGLY recommend that hand sanitizers not be kept in cars.”
Waukegan FD photo
Waukegan FD photo
Waukegan FD photo
#1 by BMurphy on June 21, 2020 - 11:16 AM
The flashpoint of ethyl alcohol (most common type used in hand sanitizers) is around 70 degrees F. Flashpoint, as FFs should remember from Fire Science 101, is the temperature at which vapors are produced in sufficient quantity to support combustion (the vapors, not the liquid, are what burn).
The ignition temperature of ethyl alcohol is typically between 600 and 700 degrees F.
While it is entirely possible in this case that there were ethyl alcohol vapors being produced in sufficient quantities to support combustion (uncapped container, spilled product, possibly even burst container due to heat-caused vapor pressure in the container), the temperature inside the vehicle, even in direct sunlight on a dark surface would not even come close to the ignition temperature of ethyl alcohol vapor (just for comparison sake, vehicle carpets, upholstery and other plastic items can ignite at around 450 degrees F).
Ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizers therefore will not auto-ignite from exposure to enclosed, sun-exposed car interior temperatures, per the laws of chemistry and physics.
If spilled hand sanitizer vapors were exposed to a spark from an electronic or similar source in the vehicle, that might offer a plausible explanation for a fire. A fire presenting itself in this manner could also have other sources, or ‘reasons’, and I’ll leave those to your imagination.
While removing it from your vehicle is a prudent idea, spontaneous ignition of hand sanitizer from car interior temperatures alone is not possible.