Public Safety Department Review
Interior Plant Specialists, Inc. Review
City of Waverly Fire Chief Letter
OSU (Cooperative Extension Service, The Ohio State University]
"Based on the work I believe we can say with relative safety that this product will work well as a mulch for plants. We would suggest you market a product that is moderately toasted of various sizes. We did see that the use of this product as a surface mulch enhanced growth of weeping fig plants and the moderately toasted surface mulch had no significant adverse affects on tomato plants. These are both good indications!"
CTL ENGINEERING (Consulting Engineers Testing, Inspection Laboratory Services)
Less controlled but more representative testing involved the random dropping of lighted matches onto a bed of chips. More than 100 attempts were made in this manner, but no ignition of the wood chips ever occurred, yet, if a chip were held in a erect manner and a match flame applied to it, it would ignite immediately and burn. If the burning wood chip were then dropped into a bed of chips, the flame would go out and the fired chip would extinguish itself.
CLT Engineering set up ashtrays filled with chips and found that burning cigarettes would not ignite the chips. However, in one instance the wood chips did smolder after five days of attack on the chips with lighted cigarettes. Examination showed a large content of cigarette ashes were at the area of smoldering chips and may have contributed to the burning. There was no open flame in the chips, but smoldering and odor was present with a little smoke. The smoldering subsided once the cigarette was removed.
There are some recommended practices that should be considered in an installation.
- Do not cover heating pipes or heating wires in a planter box.
- Keep planter surface areas pretty well open.
- Keep light bulbs far enough away so that heat transfer is minimal.
- Keep surface area relatively packed and flattened.
- Make maintenance people aware of necessity to keep mulched areas clean of trash, especially papers.
- The major safe rule for ignition exposure of wood is that the continual exposure temperature be limited to 212 degrees.
PUBLIC SAFETY DEPARTMENT, FIRE DIVISION (Don E. Werner, Jr., Fire Chief)
"In conclusion, I would agree with the results of CTL Engineering tests, and fully recommend the “practices for use”, established by CTL Engineering. Additionally indoor areas that are to be mulched should receive adequate moisture."
INTERIOR PLANT SPECIALISTS, INC.
"As you know, IPS recently refurbished one of our hotel accounts, the Hyatt Regency Columbus, with Pro-Toast. The product spreads very easily and was consistent in color and size. We feel your product will also be helpful in reducing the possible fire hazard typically associated with decorative mulches. Most importantly, our clients were equally impressed with the result."
