Titanium's A Burner Plus: Blamed For Brush Fires

AP's Christopher Weber with the results of the Orange County Fire Authority's study of titanium drivers causing sparks leading to brush fires, including this one at Shady Canyon in Irvine, California.

Weber writes:

Investigators who were "laughed at" when they first floated the golf club theory have been vindicated, according to Concialdi.

Scientists painstakingly re-created in the lab course the conditions on the days of the fires. Using high-speed cameras and electron microscopes, they found that if hit upon a rock, clubs containing titanium can produce sparks of up to 3,000 degrees that will burn for more than a second, said James Earthman, a chemical engineering and materials science professor and an author of the study.

"And that gives the spark plenty of time" to ignite nearby foliage, he said. "Titanium reacts violently with both oxygen and nitrogen in the air."