Country club fire caused by oily rags put out quickly

Indoor sprinklers quickly extinguished an early morning fire Tuesday at the Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, fire authorities said. The fire was traced back to a pile of oily rags used for refinishing wooden furniture at the country club.

Thirteen city fire fighters responded to an alarm at 4:16 a.m. at the club near the 100 block of Big Canyon Drive finding smoke coming from the building, said fire department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz.

No one was injured and the fire was extinguished by the sprinkler system before firefighters arrived, Schulz said.

When piled together under the right conditions, oily rags can create enough heat to catch fire, according to a fire department news release. The rags should be laid out separately to dry in order to prevent this kind of spontaneous combustion. The department responds to several fires each year caused by self-ignited oily rags, the department said.

— Kelly Strodl