Picture courtesy Vincent Megaides Source: The Daily Telegraph
Maroubra Seals Sports Club in Sydney, Australia, was up in flames Friday evening, and Pete Reid, General Manager, seemed mightily pissed off:
“The fire started in the sauna. I’m of the opinion it started by people putting things on the sauna – eucalyptus oil – which they have been told not to do,” he said.
“People just can’t be told – even thought there’s signs and everything else. That’s the end of the sauna. There won’t be any more at Maroubra Seals.”
What a shame.
All (authentic) sauna stoves are made to take water. Faulty electric sauna stoves can short out from excessive water dousing. A wood burning sauna stove won’t short out and is thus safer than an electric sauna stove, how ironic is that?
Yes, proper sauna stoves are meant to take water. The problem is eucalyptus oil is an oil. In the US and Europe the containers are marked as “Warning: Flammable Liquid and Vapor.”
Pouring eucalyptus oil undiluted onto the hot rocks of a sauna stove can cause the oil to burst into flames. Flames inside a wood-lined room are a very bad thing, as the members of the Maroubra Seals Sports Club found out this weekend.
Ya, but only and Australian would toss undiluted eucalyptus onto a sauna stove.