A friend of mine worked for a guy that was having a hard time in the cyclic car repair business,anyway,my friend was down the pit removing a petrol tank on some old jalopy on a saturday morning as he didnt finish the job on the friday,when along came garage owner and threw a lighted fag end down the pit,i can assure everyone that the petrol fumes did indeed ignite and my friend lives to tell the tale,his boss also lived but went on to walk funny for a long time afterwards
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the pit i can assure everyone that the petrol fumes did indeed ignite and my
Yeah but fumes in a tightly enclosed space is a bit different from out in the open air near the kiosk, especially as every BP forecourt that I've seen has a vapour recovery system.
Must have been a nasty experience for your mate though, talk about a lucky escape!
Blue
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As blue said, the concentration of fumes in the enclosed pit area would help to get a successful ingnite. This guy was sat in his car by the kiosk.
There is a danger of ignition near the pump handle and arguably a lesser danger but still a danger in the immediate vicinity. Mobile phone argument is that they work on microwaves, microwaves create sparks with metal, theoretically, but who has ever seen a spark from a mobile phone in all the billioins of phone calls that have now been made on mobile phones? Still to use a mobile while actually filling is not going to be 100% safe.
This is what can happen, and this is due to static electricity from the jumper and the car seat.
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HnSWW7c24fA
She might have smoked whilst in the car - no fire - when the static discharge happened on the pump handle then you get a fire. And there is no cigarette in her hands.
Your 'copper' comment seemed to suggest you thought I or Blue were condoning the idea of smoking in a petrol station. I for one do not condone smoking anywhere in a petrol station. But the OP asked if t was a serious as s/he thought, I was merely replying that it was not as serious as they thought.
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I was merely replying that it was not as serious as they thought.
So it's sort of all right horatio, even though you don't like it? :o)
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It's the same as the urban myth about using your phone whilst filling up, I've used it loads of times (and been shouted at over the tannoy a few times too!) and I've yet to ignite into a huge ball of flames.
I think it may be linked in with the don't use your phone on a plane theory, my mate's a pilot (private not commercial) and he flies with it on so that he isn't out of touch when flying domestically.
Blue
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so it must be alright to nick the copper cable from down my church spire then,its never been used as the spire is still there and coppers up to £1600 a tonne ;-)
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I thought not using the phone was because it might screw up the reading ??
JH
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>>It's the same as the urban myth about using your phone whilst filling up, I've used it loads of times (and been shouted at over the tannoy a few times too!) and I've yet to ignite into a huge ball of flames.
We'll never know, because if you do go up in a ball of flames, I bet you won't tell us (if you do survive).
Remind me someone please of Darwin's theory of evolution.
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I had an interesting conversation with a bloke who'd been paid to create four inch long sparks on petrol station forecourts. He never managed to get anything to ignite. Its not unusual in foreign climes to have a bbq on the forecourt, selling fresh hot food to the patrons.
Anyone that's ever lifted the bonnet of a car at night with dodgy HT leads would have seen the array of sparks flying across them, far worse than any cigarette will ever produce.
The risk on a forecourt is negligible, the risk in a pit with a fuel tank half out is considerably greater, which is why HSE is banning the use of pits
--
I read often, only post occasionally
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Our local Esso station has a warning sign along the lines of "Do not refuel your car while wearing nylon clothing".
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To reduce the small risk sensible precautions are required: using a mobile phone whilst pumping is rather foolish. Distracts from operating the pump safely. Walking across the forecourt on the phone also increases the risk of collision! UKPIA line:tinyurl.com/2blty9
deadlink
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 28/10/2007 at 16:25
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Our local Esso station has a warning sign along the lines of "Do not refuel your car while wearing nylon clothing".
"Remove all nylon clothing before refueling"
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It's the same as the urban myth about using your phone whilst filling up I've used it loads of times
It's not so much the using of it, but the risk of dropping it, the battery falling out and creating a spark while doing so. That's the real reason why they don't like you using a phone on the forecourt.
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Secondly you can have a puddle of petrol on the floor thow a cigarette in guess what happens? The cigarette will be extinguished by the wet fuel. Hollywood is not real.
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You might beable to put a fag out in a puddle of unleaded, but I can assure you that a lighted match anywhere near an even damp patch of gas ingites faster that I can react and run away.
It makes ones face turn black and become rather sore. Ones hair turn frazzly in a cartoon stylee too and reasults in a trip to hospital and some time off work.
Don't do it kids.
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Good reading but will make no difference to my personal risk assessment when seeing a smoker at a petrol station, the control measure is to keep well clear.
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Of course, it would also be perfectly reasonable to pull the emergency pump shut-off and then empty a fire extinguisher though the open car window.
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I never thought of that.
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Self defence plea do you think PU? 'My client, an immigrant and stranger to Immingham, was in fear of imminent immolation...'
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Yeah
If he's there again next Saturday I'll try it!
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Please make sure the CCTV's up and running, so we can all enjoy it ;>)
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There's an awful lot of things I want to do when I retire in 18 months (that I wouldn't have dared done before IYKWIM)
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>>I think it may be linked in with the don't use your phone on a plane theory, my mate's a pilot (private not commercial) and he flies with it on so that he isn't out of touch when flying domestically.
I thought the average maximum range of a mobile was about a mile - Angels five?
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The electronic interference case for not using mobiles in planes is pretty well defunct now - several airlines have run trials and found it perfectly safe. The thing that remains between us and universal airborne mobile use is resistance from passengers, appalled at the thought of being strapped down next to a mobile-phone bore for nine hours. Watch out for an SMS-only compromise solution in the next year or two.
And now, back to the subject of petrol.
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Yes. And on a more serious note, petrol is quite crotchety stuff.
In Sussex once, on a damp and cold day, I tried to revive a sulky wet bonfire by chucking petrol on it, inspired by the memory of the school servants in Ceylon when I was nine, merrily slinging petrol into the Guy Fawkes night bonfire from old baked bean tins to make it go better. They liked Guy Fawkes as much as we did and used to let off rockets by holding the stick in one hand, waiting till the rocket fired and launching it randomly upwards.
My tin of petrol in Sussex put the fire out completely by cooling it down. I realised there might be a bit of vapour so tried to relight it cautiously at arm's length. In fact I was crouching amid a huge pool of completely invisible petrol vapour, which didn't even smell much, and that had filled all the hollows in the ground nearby. A quiet but rapid wall of blue flame warmed my ankles as it passed and set all the tall dry grass stems in its path alight.
No real problem in a damp Sussex wood, and I didn't get flash burns. But watch out with petrol. It's a bit treacherous.
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Some time ago I stopped at a Shell station near Lichfield to fill up. At the next pump was a blond woman sat in the passenger seat, window half open, hand out of window holding a lighted cigarette. I pointed out to her the danger and her reply was 'We don't want the smoke in the car, anyway its OK, he's finished putting petrol in'. At that exact same time all pumps were disabled by the cashier and a very stern voice over the PA system ordered her to extinguish the fag. She did, but I don't think she really understood why.
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a blond woman
>>She did but I don't think she really understood why.
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There's your answer!
I think I'll err on the side of caution on this one - it might be a one in a squillion chance of a lit cigi causing a blaze, but I don't think I'll take it...
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At the age of about 14, my mates and I were lighting fires in the garden while bored in the holidays. I grabbed an old jerry can of petrol and poured a generous slug onto a bunch of smouldering twigs. At which point, a flame shot up and set the can on fire. My mates ran for it while I froze. Flames continued to leap out of the spout. I'm not sure why but I pushed the lid back on before I ran. The lack of oxygen extinguished the can fortunately. I was shaking for hours afterwards..........
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Dry wood and newspaper is a much better way of starting a fire. And an old car tyre added to the mix helps too.
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Arrange the tyres in a pretty stack, throw in a few hundred pallets and you've got an 11th night bonfire in N.I.!
AA
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We used to get old oil drums (the smaller ones - 25litres?), fill with a small amount of water, seal the top and place on a bonfire. Amazingly dangerous but the explosions were impressively loud.
We also used to have MC bikes, one time a friend got the oil mix wrong and added too much oil. Not knowing what to do with the gallon of useless fuel a large puddle was poured onto the ground. Several ciggies were thrown on it and it failed to light, it took a match to get it going...
What we did back then was stupid, but it did show us just how dangerous petrol can be. Even a small amount can create a huge fireball and things don't always go as expected.
Don't forget that petrol fumes tend to sink and collect in low areas (pits) and are toxic.
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A good of mine was working on the carb with his car in his drive in front of the garage.
The small amount of fuel spilled provided enough vapour for the paraffin heater in the rear of the garage to ignite it. That is quite a distance to the ignition source.
The plug leads and a few other parts were written off.
The only time I have had an spillage in a filling station was when a pump did not auto shut off. The staff eventually ambled into action with some sand after I prodded them into some sort of action.
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I was filling up at Tesco when someone popped out of the shop and onto the forecourt for a smoke, an unintended consequence of the smoking ban.
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