On that note of rarity, I nearly had a massive fire at a service station I was working at. I had a Falcon come in to the forecourt running pretty rough. It stalled beside a pump & started smoking under the bonnet, So (of course) in a screaming hurry, shot out there with the extinguisher & shot a good blast under the bonnet. Once the smoke cleared, we could see large amounts of sparks coming from under the bonnet which was the coil packs shorting. Had to wrap up my hands in a heavy jacket to get the bonnet open & disconnect the battery. Only ever seen or heard of that happening once but I KNOW, it did happen
mrfxit,
Jul 30, 6:00am
Another night we had a Valiant come in & the owner start pumping petrol in the tank . when we spotted a large puddle forming under his car !
He had forgotten that he was running on LPG & had removed the petrol tank.
fungles,
Jul 30, 10:53am
The local garage phoned a friends wife, telling her the repaired radiator had arrived for hubbies car, helpfully she drove in to town to pick it up, car seized a few ks up the road, the car had no radiator.
nzmax,
Jul 30, 10:58am
After working at a petrol station many years ago, I would be more concerned about the number of people that get out of the car with a lit cigarette either in their hand or mouth. I have even gone up to a person filling their own car holding a cigarette in the same hand as the nozzle, and you would also be surprised at how many people throw their lit cigarette in the forecourt rubbish bin without stubbing it out.
mrfxit,
Jul 30, 11:17am
Yea had some on motorbikes sitting on the bike filling it up & puffing away
andrew1954,
Jul 30, 1:28pm
Yes that also my experience working at a service station, but the most scary was when a police car chase ended on the forecourt and the “badie†was pulled out of his car and the the 4 cop car loads of police surrounded him several with their tazers drawn. if they actually tazered him it would not be too bad no sparks, but the cops have the habit of “sparking them up†as a deterent. now several thousand of volts of sparks we are talking potential danger. If i noticed anybody on the phone, or smoking etc on the forecourt, I would just turn off the pump, so it would not start or stop miduse. People used to try to argue that phone use was not dangerous, and my answer was it is a very very small risk, but the bottom line is that they are the rules, like it or lump it
mrfxit,
Jul 30, 1:33pm
1 chance in maybe 50K. Do you really want to take the risk of being that ONE on a service station forecourt, (or next to them)
socram,
Jul 30, 3:05pm
I don't believe you can get static off wool. (Happy to be proven wrong.)
Static is normally an issue from man made fibres, which is why hospital theatre staff wear cotton undies, not nylon.
bumfacingdown,
Jul 30, 3:38pm
Yes but they would produce an inferior flame and burn slower and less
mrcat1,
Jul 30, 4:06pm
You are not allowed into a fuel installation with a standard cellphone, it has to be a intrinsically safe one only. All others including lighters/ matches etc have to remain in the office or offsite.
nzmax,
Jul 30, 4:41pm
Much more excitement than we ever had. We only ever had people pulling up to the pumps with burning mattresses. two in the same week once. One was caused by a lady in the passenger seat throwing a cigarette butt out the window and it landed on the mattress in the trailer they were towing. Driver saw the mattress smouldering in the mirror so pulls in next to the pumps. Second was similar circumstances, passenger throwing cigarette butt out the window and it came in behind her onto the mattress in the back of the van. again driver pulls in next to the pumps. Told them to take it out and use the hose at side of building to put it out. Go out 5 mins later and find them gone and the mattress burning next to the bulk LPG tank. Also happened a few times when I wasnt rostered on. Seems to be if you have a burning mattress on board you have to pull up next to the pumps.
framtech,
Jul 30, 5:30pm
No it was done on mith busters on TV and they couldn't get a cell to trigger petrol vapours at all, no matter what the O2 / fuel ratio was.
djrandomguy,
Jul 30, 5:38pm
TRUE, you could use your cellphone to call the arsonist to burn the petrol station down.
marte,
Jul 30, 6:00pm
Both the battery connections & the Aerial connection can spark. This info predates smartphone though.
Some kids in southland died when sniffing gas in a car & one of their cellphones rung. Extreme situation but its happened elsewhere.
marte,
Jul 30, 6:02pm
Mythbusters is pretty crap at setting up the situation sometimes. Never saw that episode though.p
the-lada-dude,
Jul 31, 2:45am
we don't believe this! you have been chosen to test the theory,
nice_lady,
Jul 31, 3:08am
Don't remember that one - I do remember some young ones getting blown up by sniffing LPG in a car apparently and one of them lit a cigarette. Doh !
richardmayes,
Jul 31, 6:04am
It seems unlikely that such a small, low-powered solid state device could generate an arc that could ignite petrol vapour.
But the consequence if I'm wrong in my conjecture, is burning alive. probably sensible to err on the side of caution?
mrfxit,
Jul 31, 8:10am
Yea I saw it & it was done with 1 cell ph in good physical condition
mrfxit,
Jul 31, 8:11am
As mentioned above, yep dingbat went to light a ciggy
mrfxit,
Nov 8, 4:56am
Low power DRAIN. On a Lithium battery designed to power a hungry device that only lasts 1 or 2 days.
The old cdma ph's could often last a week
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