Saw this again yesterday . I don't mind them competing for a Darwin Award. I just don't want them making me a part of the competition .

There is probably a "No Smoking" sign prominently displayed.

There is an emergency shut-off for the gas pumps, accessible to customers. Feel free to use it.

When the gas station manager comes out to the pumps to find out why somebody pressed the big red button, you can ask him / her for the phone number of the Fire Marshall.

I'm in the oil & gas industry, and I've seen the CCTV footage of all the events that people say, "Been doin' it for years and never had a problem until today." For example:

Smoking while filling up

Filling gas can on tail gate not on ground

Static electricity (mainly women as they tend to get back in the car and don't touch the side of the car prior to touching pump nozzle).

Here is a YouTube video of smoking:


Link to original video: https://youtu.be/C6VHqFgOA6I

This is why I am convinced we will never have hydrogen powered autos. Idiots can't handle simple gasoline - so lets give them a system using a flammable pressurized gas and see what happens. . .

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I'm in the oil & gas industry, and I've seen the CCTV footage of all the events that people say, "Been doin' it for years and never had a problem until today." For example:

Smoking while filling up

Filling gas can on tail gate not on ground

Static electricity (mainly women as they tend to get back in the car and don't touch the side of the car prior to touching pump nozzle).

Here is a YouTube video of smoking:


Link to original video: https://youtu.be/C6VHqFgOA6I

Apparently that wasn't due to a cigarette but to static electricity, if you watch close neither lit anything, the guy in the white colored jacket just reached down and touched the handle.

It's a good warning as to why you should touch the car to ground yourself before touching the pump handle..

ON a warm day here if you are parked correctly you can see the waves of gas fumes coming out of the tank in the air, big badda boom!

Why bother pump gas? Be the idiot who park their POS beater at a pump, do a swagger/fully body jerk walk up to the store smoking the whole way, leave the car running while blasting something that I don't even think qualifies as gansta rap, make your purchase, do the swagger/fully body jerk walk back to said POS car, hop in and drive off.

The kickers were:
The punk was a 90# white ass cracker who thought he was inner city black.
There were a half dozen empty spots at the store he could park at.
And there was an African American gentleman getting really pissed that this is what some country bumpkin thought the inner city blacks looked like.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I'm in the oil & gas industry, and I've seen the CCTV footage of all the events that people say, "Been doin' it for years and never had a problem until today." For example:

Smoking while filling up

Filling gas can on tail gate not on ground

Static electricity (mainly women as they tend to get back in the car and don't touch the side of the car prior to touching pump nozzle).

Here is a YouTube video of smoking:


Link to original video: https://youtu.be/C6VHqFgOA6I

I could have sworn Mythbusters busted the static/vapor combustion thing. Anyone want to google it?

-Rob

I did a quick search online and saw a lot of stupidity, but didn't see many actual videos of fires started by cigarettes. I'm sure the videos exist.

I've also noticed more and more gas pumps with phone-quality or better displays that flash ads, etc, while you're pumping.

Merge the two. Show loops of rocket surgeons setting fire to their cars, selves, and families on the pump screen. People will watch these videos just because people watch any damned video put in front of them. Maybe a few people will learn something.

I know, hope spring eternal.

I once had a customer who owned a bulk plant. I happened to drive by when he was filling his bulk truck. I stopped to BS with him. Shortly there after he lit a cigarette.

I asked him if he was crazy and he said he's done it for years.

I jumped in my SUV and got out of there.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
I'm in the oil & gas industry, and I've seen the CCTV footage of all the events that people say, "Been doin' it for years and never had a problem until today." For example:

Smoking while filling up

Filling gas can on tail gate not on ground

Static electricity (mainly women as they tend to get back in the car and don't touch the side of the car prior to touching pump nozzle).

Here is a YouTube video of smoking:


Link to original video: https://youtu.be/C6VHqFgOA6I

I could have sworn Mythbusters busted the static/vapor combustion thing. Anyone want to google it?

-Rob

It's not a myth. Just because they can't create the environmental conditions necessary for static electricity to start a fire pumping gasoline doesn't mean it's a myth. It's a very rare event, but I've seen my employer's CCTV footage of it occurring.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Apparently that wasn't due to a cigarette but to static electricity, if you watch close neither lit anything, the guy in the white colored jacket just reached down and touched the handle.

It's a good warning as to why you should touch the car to ground yourself before touching the pump handle..

I just watched on a larger screen, I concur that the YouTube video was mislabeled. He fiddle fucked around inside the car, and likely the seat created static electricity. He didn't ground himself prior to touching the pump (i.e. avoiding touching a dirty vehicle is why so many static electricity fires at the pump are women), and the static electricity discharged right at the ideal vapor / oxygen ratio.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
ON a warm day here if you are parked correctly you can see the waves of gas fumes coming out of the tank in the air, big badda boom!

Yes, fumes are definitely coming back out of the tank as gasoline is going into the tank. The only exception is if you're in an air attainment area where the pump hose is actually a hose within a hose, and the vapors are being sucked back to the underground tank as the gasoline is going in.

It usually takes cooler, dry air for ideal static situations which is one reason why it's very common for the people starting the fire to be wearing a jacket. Not saying it can't happen on a hot day in a very dry climate.

quote:

Merge the two. Show loops of rocket surgeons setting fire to their cars, selves, and families on the pump screen. People will watch these videos just because people watch any damned video put in front of them. Maybe a few people will learn something.

I know, hope spring eternal.

You are way too optimistic. They will think it is just cool entertainment for them, and fail to make the connection. I can imagine them saying to each other like " they blowed it up real good" while continuing to take a drag on their smoke.

quote:

Originally posted by whanson_wi:
I did a quick search online and saw a lot of stupidity, but didn't see many actual videos of fires started by cigarettes. I'm sure the videos exist.

Here is a news report and CCTV footage of a husband's cigarette setting his wife on fire (she received 2nd degree burns).


Link to original video: https://youtu.be/ezacePkK6Sc

Note: I'm just posting publicly available videos from YouTube (i.e. these aren't my employer's videos and I don't have the investigation report on the incidents in the YouTube videos).

My dad pumped gas for over 20 years. One of the guys he worked with smoked while he was pumping fuel for customers. He even held the cigarette between his fingers on the hand holding the nozzle. Sounds crazy dangerous but statistically probably not or you would think he would have caused a fire in 20 years.

My grandpa grew up in the oil fields of Oklahoma. Many times, as a kid, I saw him douse a lit cigarette in a bucket of gasoline to put the cigarette out. I questioned him once about it and he told me that the gasoline must be vapor and the ignition must be as hot as a spark.

Puzzled me at the time, but later I found that his explanation was true.

quote:

Originally posted by arlen:
My grandpa grew up in the oil fields of Oklahoma. Many times, as a kid, I saw him douse a lit cigarette in a bucket of gasoline to put the cigarette out. I questioned him once about it and he told me that the gasoline must be vapor and the ignition must be as hot as a spark.

Puzzled me at the time, but later I found that his explanation was true.

Yes you can put a cigarette out in gas, but one gust of wind and the end of the cigarette can turn red and reach the flash point.

Similarly, if one must weld, solder or braze a steel gas tank, it is safer (but still not safe, and under normal circumstances I never advise it) to do it on a completely full one so all the air space is taken up.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
Similarly, if one must weld, solder or braze a steel gas tank, it is safer (but still not safe, and under normal circumstances I never advise it) to do it on a completely full one so all the air space is taken up.

The fuel pump in my old Jimmy died and when the gas tank was removed, it turned out that somebody in the past had used JB Weld or something similar to seal the access plate.

Mechanic tried chipping it out, no joy. I suggested emptying the gas, filling the tank with water to displace any gas fumes, and using a torch to try to break through the JB Weld, but the mechanic was not comfortable with that, for several reasons. We ended up replacing the tank.

A local auto repair shop had a serious fire from using an incandescent light, probably one like this ...



working with gasoline. Apparently the bulb broke and the exposed filament, just before it burned out, ignited fumes. Always use a fluorescent or LED. They also don't get hot and burn you.

What is this pump your own gas that you talk about?