Tortilla chips keep spontaneously combusting in Texas

Tortilla chips.
(Image credit: iStock)

Salsa is supposed to bring the heat to a chip-and-dip combination. But at a Texas factory, it's the tortilla chips that are on fire.

Earlier this month, firefighters responded to the "spontaneous combustion of tortilla chips" twice in three days at an Austin factory, the Austin American-Statesman reports. The factory was trying a new waste management method which "suffice it to say, didn't work out so well," the fire department said on Facebook. (The newspaper dryly notes that "officials were unclear about how the new process could have led to the fire.") When responding to the first blaze, firefighters watched as boxes of discarded chips kept lighting up. Three days later, it happened again.

Luckily, no chips were toasted inside the factory — this all happened outside. And fear not: Firefighters doused the remaining boxes to make sure the blaze didn't triple dip.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.