Can smoldering fires go unnoticed?

[panther12]

Hi all,

This may not be a hearth related question, but since, you people have a lot of experience with fires, I think you can help me out here.

I am having a hard time, wrapping my head around the smoldering combustion phenomenon. From what I have read about on the internet, it is also called 'Hidden Fire' and i have also read that, it poses a health hazard because they go unnoticed.

Now, my question here, is that can a smoldering fire go unnoticed and continue to pose a health risk, without someone realizing? I am asking, this because, today my friend dropped a lit cigarette in my car, and from what I have read about cigarettes, they can easily initiate a smoldering fire on car carpets, which may or may not progress to flame fire.

Is it possible, that there is a smoldering fire underneath the car seat, which I cannot see, because I cannot reach there.

 

[kennyp2339]

Prob not, I once new a guy that was smoking in a rental car, he went to flick his cig out the window but it instead flew behind his seat without realizing it. He kept driving, about an hour later he opened his window and that was enough extra oxygen to have a large portion of the backseat burst into flames, he did all he could to pull over, the car was a total loss.
That was about 15 years ago, today all cigs sold in the US have to be treated with FSC which is a fire retardant and will snuff out unattended lit cigs.
Now to smoldering fires left unnoticed or unchecked, there are a couple locations in PA that have underground coal seem fires that have been burning for over a hundred years.

 

[xman23]

I had a stove ash with smoldering chunks that was alive for weeks. Totally unnoticed burning through my deck. All that was missing was air. I don't know about a health hazard, but a few more days it would have been real unhealthy for the house. So could you do this with a cigarette in a car, maybe.

 

[drz1050]

It would still create heat.. lots of it. You'd probably notice that on a seat

 

[Warm_in_NH]

You would also very likely smell it in a car, so I've gotta go with the "very unlikely" answer. 15 or 20 min, maybe, but after a couple hours, not likely to have one go unnoticed especially if you're looking for it.
But I was wrong one time, so....
There's a few fire fighters on here that may chime in and show me to be wrong again though, that'd be twice....

 

[firefighterjake]

If your car isn't a burnt out metal shell this morning . . . you should be fine.