Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

"Vaping", and gasoline fumes


Alpo

Recommended Posts

If you are driving down the road with three or four cans of gasoline in your backseat, a prudent person would not smoke.

 

But what about vaping? Could that ignite the gas fumes in the air?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But, aside from Kid Rich's astute comment, no, vaping would not ignite the fumes. At least the vape units that i used for a short time wouldn't. They were all self contained.

 

 

By the way, while we are on the subject. Vaping fluid or "juice" contains glycol. This raises one's blood sugar levels a great deal so if you know anyone that vapes please let the,m know about this. Especially if they are diabetic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Neither e cigs nor cellphones will ignite gas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Remember the cell phone/gas station panic of the 90's?  The "official" warning stickers on all the gas pumps?  Sheesh...!

 

I was pumping gas one afternoon and talking to a friend on my phone.  Suddenly she asked, "Where are you?"  When I told her what I was doing she nearly panicked.  "Hang up!  Hang up!  Don't you know you can't talk on a cell phone in a gas station??  It might blow up!"  She was a schoolteacher.

 

A good friend of mine who worked for CalTrans (the state road department) once cautioned me to "NEVER use your phone at a gas station!  It can cause the whole facility to go up!  They warned us at work!  There's a big campaign on to warn people!"  Uh... so Mark... so, when's the last time you heard of a gas station exploding?  After a thoughtful moment, he said "Well... it COULD happen, I s'pose.  After all, CalTrans has this official campaign and there's them stickers on the gas pumps..."

 

Another time I was pumping gas, talking on my phone, when a woman two lanes away from me looked up, saw me, and literally ran across the lanes waving her arms and screaming "Hang up!  Hang up!  You're going to kill us ALL!!  Hang up!!"  I didn't.  She tried to snatch my phone; I blocked her.  She then ran inside the storefront, and I could see her through the window as she gestured, yelled, and pointed at me.  The clerk just smiled and shook his head.  A tanker was delivering gas at that time; she ran out and yelled at the man offloading fuel; he just shook his head.  By golly!  She was SO determined to save us - someone oughtta track 'er down and give her a medal!  ^_^

 

The FCC issued a statement that there was no foundation for fears of cell phones blowing up gas stations, but it wasn't until the Myth Busters boys "proved" it that folks stopped freaking out.

 

Yup.  I reckon that there must've been days when a body could hardly think over the "Boom!s" of cell phone ignited gas stations blowing up...  :rolleyes:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lit cigarette won’t do it either. Despite what you see in action movies. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

A lit cigarette won’t do it either. Despite what you see in action movies. ;)

False.  A smoldering grey ash cigarette will not ignite gasoline.  A draw on a cigarette to glow orange can ignite gasoline, butt doesn’t always ignite.  Probably due to the stoich ratio.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I do know that a static spark will ignite fumes because I saw it happen in North Carolina on a really hot day. A lady popped her gas tank lid from inside and when she grabbed the gas cap and twisted it off she caused a static spark and the fumes caught fire and that caught her shirt sleeve on fire. She had the presence of mind to shove the gas cap on with her other hand and then dunked her arm in the windshield washing solution. Scared the bejesus out of her but she was fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I do know that a static spark will ignite fumes because I saw it happen in North Carolina on a really hot day. A lady popped her gas tank lid from inside and when she grabbed the gas cap and twisted it off she caused a static spark and the fumes caught fire and that caught her shirt sleeve on fire. She had the presence of mind to shove the gas cap on with her other hand and then dunked her arm in the windshield washing solution. Scared the bejesus out of her but she was fine.

 

If that would have been New Jersey, she would have been arrested for improper display of a firearm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last year, after the hurricane, my daughter was coming down to help me. I told her to bring gasoline. Gasahol was available for half a mile from here, but the closest place that was still working that had gasoline was 30 miles. And generators preferred gasoline.

 

So she calls me when she's on the road and says, "We're on the way".

 

We? That's when she tells me that her sister is coming along. I say that if she has gas in the back of that truck (Ford Escape - SUV - no trunk, so kind of have to have it in the backseat), tell her sister not to smoke. She must have had it on speaker because I hear her sister say that she does not smoke anymore. She vapes.

 

Well, they made it here without blowing up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the lithium battery in the thing failed it could possibly create enough heat to ignite the gasoline.  There have been a few people injured and one killed when the battery in their vape pen exploded.

 

Vape pen kills man after exploding in his mouth

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

If the lithium battery in the thing failed it could possibly create enough heat to ignite the gasoline.  There have been a few people injured and one killed when the battery in their vape pen exploded.

 

Vape pen kills man after exploding in his mouth


while that is possible, it’s also a possibility for any battery powered device, cell phone, tablet, or laptop.  Very low probability of that happening with a well designed device.
 I would guess most cars can’t get anywhere close to the right mix of air and gas to actually burn.  Too much airflow and not enough evaporation from a closed container.   You would have to spill gas in the car to come close to having the right mix and then it would probably smell so much you would get out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

If the lithium battery in the thing failed it could possibly create enough heat to ignite the gasoline.  There have been a few people injured and one killed when the battery in their vape pen exploded.

 

Vape pen kills man after exploding in his mouth

No. Heat won’t do it. Gas will actually boil under enough heat. As I mentioned, you can toss a lit cigarette into gas and it will go out. You need flame to ignite gasoline vapors. If a flaming vape pen came in contact with fumes then you have a boom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We set up a junk car with about 7 gals of gas in the tank with a reward for the person who ignited the gas with a handgun shot. Lots of fun.

 

Tank ignited with the loving help of a BAR with a magazine full of funny colored bullets.  Flame was moderate at best.

Tank is burning mildly. I set up and shot all the super hot 41 mags I had through the liquid gasoline with the hope of a big boom.

All I  got was a mild "whoomp" for each shot.

Put the fire out with a garden hose.

Nowhere near the TV violence we were hoping for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many years ago, when we was younger and dumber, we put a 1/4 cup of gasoline in a five gallon can (having read, in those long-ago pre-internet days, that it was the fumes that was explosive, and that the fumes from a quarter cup of gasoline in a 5-gallon can had the explosive power of four sticks of dynamite), capped it, shook it up, and tossed it in the bay.

 

After letting it drift about a hundred yards offshore we shot it with tracer. Multiple times. It refused to explode.

 

Probably lucky for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have heard that TV/movie explosions are a mix of black powder and diesel.  While gas can be explosive, it is not as easy as it seems.  The safety guy used to do a talk and drop lit matches in a a full coffee cup.  The matches would go out.  Then at the end of the talk he would pour out the liquid, and drop in a match.  It would go up in a small ball of Fire.  He had the cup filled with gas.  This was to show the vapor was what was dangerous.  
 

real world example.  A dad of a high school friend use gas to light a brush pile.  After dumping gas on the brush he stood a few feet downhill of the pile and lit a match.  The whole thing went up lighting the fumes around his legs, causing minor burns and a trip to the er.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My stepbrother,back in the 60s, gassed up his car spilt some gas on his pants. Got home went to fix something to eat( fried Balogna) struck a match & poof.

Spent some time in the hospital.

                                                                                                  Largo

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.