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That's bullshit. I don't believe it for a second.
"Oily rags" can spontaneously combust if they are a furniture finish wiping oil that cures like boiled linseed oil or tung oil. That kind of oil gives off a small amount of heat as it cures and if you have a soaking wet rag all bunched up, the heat is concentrated in one spot. But once it's dry, the curing is done and there is no heat produced and it's safe. Walnut oil is the only cooking oil that will cure, and it's a very rare specialty item that most people aren't going to be using. Rags soaked in non-curing oils like vegetable oil or mineral oil or motor oil will not spontaneously combust, but since oil will burn fairly easily, shops have special metal trash cans for motor oil soaked rags to keep sparks from accidentally igniting them.
Then you have wet hay that can spontaneously combust. That's because it begins to rot and the rotting gives off heat which gets concentrated in the middle of the hay pile.
I can theorize that wet cotton towels might also spontaneously combust if they were all wadded up in a pile and began to rot and gave off heat.
But that cooking oil theory advanced by the official sounds like complete BS. It would have to be rags drenched in fresh walnut oil and wadded up in a tight pile.
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