Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/10/04/idiot-at-gas-station-wont-pu.html
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Gas stations smoke now?
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You mean to say gasoline is flammable?
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2 points:
- It does not appear this dude is pumping gas at all. So he’s standing there smoking outside the car only.
- More importantly, Mythbusters did this test and proved that it is plausible at best. A lit cigarette does not burn at a high enough temperature to ignite gasoline. Simply not enough energy to do it reliably. The results they came up with stated it is highly improbable that a cigarette will ignite gasoline at a pump, that more than likely the cigarette would just go out.
It is still stupid, and there is enough a degree of risk that would make any logical person not do it…then I also think any logical person wouldn’t smoke at all.
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Fully justified, if a little expensive and also activates the possibility of lethal escalation by the idiot. Another possible tack would be to use the emergency pump cutoff. so that nobody can pump gasoline while the asshole is smoking.
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I’m surprised nobody got shot.
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Probably LPG and not normal gasoline, but still.
A cigarette will probably not ignite a puddle of gasoline. Spray and vapours however…
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again. Mythbusters. Go watch the episode. They did an entire piece on this.
I know some people do not buy into the results and data these guys would have; but I always have found them to be fairly spot on. It is POSSIBLE yes…but improbable.
It is possible to ignite a pool of gasoline using only a cigarette.
PARTLY PLAUSIBLE
A cigarette has the potential to light a pool of gasoline but just doesn’t have enough sustained heat. Gas ignites between 500 °F and 540 °F, the cigarette at its hottest was between 450 °F and 500 °F but only when it was actually being smoked. An ignition is very improbable.
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Did you watch the movie I linked? And also all the other movies of similar mishaps you get referred to afterwards?
It might be improbable, but it does actually happen.
There is a big difference between a puddle at rest and pumping gasoline around. The latter might cause gasoline spray in the air. And that ignites a lot more readily than a puddle.
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No. I didn’t watch it just fired back a comment without looking at it. /s
Are you reading what I stated, because it doesn’t seem like you are…
It is POSSIBLE yes…but improbable.
It is still stupid, and there is enough a degree of risk that would make any logical person not do it
By all means disregard the point I made and continue on. Have a nice day. Goodbye.
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Is this not assault?
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I know it is improbable to light a puddle. Spray and vapors on the other hand, (which are sometimes abundant during pumping at a gas station) are quite easy to light. As shown in various movies on teh youtubes.
So the mythbusters are right about lighting a puddle of gas. But that’s besides the point. The movie shows why you shouldn’t smoke at a gas station. Bit silly to ‘counter’ that by imploring people to watch mythbusters (though watching mythbusters is good fun, so nothing lost there).
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He could have killed those guys in the car. Many extinguishers work partly by purging oxygen from the environment as well as the point of combustion. Of course, the idiot with the cigarette could have killed everyone, so…
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Gas station attendant responds to irresponsible man with assault.
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Looks like a standard dry-chemical fire extinguisher, you usually only see the oxygen-purging thing in fire suppression systems for closed spaces like labs, server rooms, etc.
Especially in an outdoor area you’re not likely to kill anyone by blasting them with a fire extinguisher - though you will certainly annoy them if they weren’t on fire!
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I didn’t. But I’ve only sorta half blown up one gas station. Not that anyone noticed.
I had already dug one hole the size of a generous swimming pool, all soil contaminated with gasoline (some saturated with it) out of the ground and had it removed from the site for processing. Maybe 40 cubic yards. Installed a set of new tight lined tanks for the station, and the plumbers swapped from the old tank (with the bad lines) to the new tanks and the station was down for less than an hour.
Next project was removing the old tank. We had to drive structural steel caisson around the tanks to be removed to shore up the hole. We did, and pulled the tanks and got those offsite. We were digging out the worst of the dirty dirt when the excavator bucket made contact with the side of the steel caisson. -spark- WHOOOMP. I looked around. The equipment operator looked around. One of the station attendants looked over. Nobody else noticed, somehow, the big black toroid cloud drifting away from the gas station. The vapors were’nt still burning. Sooooo… No harm no foul? lets not do that again.
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If the gas station attendant reasonably believed that the lit cigarette was a real danger of causing an explosion then this is not assault. This would be the equivalent of grabbing someone and yanking them out of the way of an oncoming bus.
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