Comment by david-given
9 years ago
You can throw a match into an open cup of cold diesel and it'll go out.
But if the cup gets hot, diesel vapour will start coming off the top, which will ignite. If you're unlucky it'll produce enough heat to vapourise more diesel, etc.
Also, if you let the cold diesel touch cloth, it'll get wicked up, and the diesel-soaked cloth will ignite really easily. That will in turn generate enough heat to etc.
The same applies to paraffin (although to a rather lesser extent). It's a great fuel for camping and sailing, because it's nearly inert... but only nearly so. A puddle of paraffin in the bottom of your boat isn't a problem. A puddle of paraffin spilt on your cabin upholstery is a serious fire risk.
Ah, fond memories of playing with candles. Make enough "wick" of thin metal wire, and at some point the flame will boil off gases from the candle/pool of melting paraffin wax. At this point, cheap glassware will likely crack from the heat -- spilling hot wax over the table, likely igniting it - best advice is to quench the flame before it gets to that. Or so I've heard.
Fun fact: standard cheapo tea lights make great fire lighters, because they burn reliably and provide a static heat source for a long period of time. Put one under a piece of wood and it'll most likely catch fire eventually.
A short time later the wax in the tea light melts. Than it boils. Then you get (briefly) a pillar of flame...