Steam explosions are experienced in the ash hoppers of coal-fired boilers when hot ash falling from heat-transfer surfaces enters the water pool. Pellets of ash from three Australian power stations were formed in the laboratory and sintered under different conditions to simulate boiler ash deposits. When these were reheated and dropped into water, explosions were generated in isolated cases. The offending pellets were all lightly sintered and disintegrated into individual ash grains. The occurrence of explosions is unpredictable because of the extremely limited range of ash lump conditions under which they appear.