Firefighters battle 'spontaneous combustion of tortilla chips'

July 19 (UPI) -- Firefighters in Texas said they responded twice in one week to fires caused by the spontaneous combustion of tortilla chips.

The Austin Fire Department said in a Facebook post that firefighters responded July 12 to a fire at a factory on Trade Center Drive and they arrived to find the fire had been caused by "spontaneous combustion of tortilla chips."

"The factory in question was trying out a new way to handle the waste from the chips that, suffice it to say, didn't work out so well," the department said. "The fire was confined to the exterior of the building and to multiple pallets of food waste, but large cardboard boxes of the same waste continued to ignite while we were on scene!"

The department said firefighters returned three days later when surviving boxes of the same food waste burst into flames.

"The solution? The A- and B-shift crews from Engine 35 who were getting off/coming on that day drowned all of the other crates that had yet to burn, thereby eliminating the risk completely," the Facebook post said.

The department said the fires did not cause serious damage to the building since the food waste was being stored outside.