Posted on 10/02/2006 4:53:23 PM PDT by SubGeniusX
A woman in Orange County, Fla., was injured when she ignited a fire while smoking a cigarette as she filled her car with gas, according to Local 6 News.
Police said the woman was pumping gas at a Race Trac near the University of Central Florida when a cigarette butt sparked the fire.
Flames burned the gas pump and set her car on fire.
"The car is virtually ruined," a fire official at the scene said. "(It happened) just by doing something stupid by smoking while fueling her car."
Signs near the gas pump said "no smoking."
The woman will not be ticketed for the incident, Local 6 News reported.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
I heard a full gas tank is safer than a half full gas tank. The liquid is not flammable but the vapor are.
Yeahokay. You just go test that little hypothesis of yours while the rest of us drink our beer and run the video cameras from a safe distance. Be sure and wear your fire suit and your SCBA; we don't wanna lose ya, after all, we just want a good laugh. Maybe you'll get on TV.
Now. After all that ribbing, here's what you're missing: gasoline VAPOR is INFLAMMABLE. It is very explosive in air and can be READILY ignited by something as seemingly insignificant as a static spark. Heck, that's all a sprak plug really does is make a glorified static arc to touch off the gasoline/air mixture in your cars engine.
Gasoline LIQUID is another story. Don't try this at home, please, but you can actually snuff a lit match in a cup of fresh gasoline if the area is sufficiently ventilated as to prevent the vapor from building up, and you don't let the match linger too long above the liquid.

You big dummy!
Sorry, you lost me on that one, cigaretts to cellphone? See my tagline...think about it.
I heard a guy say the only thing more dangerous than a woman driver is a woman driver with a cell phone. Well, how about a woman driver with a cigarette? Just kidding .... a little bit.
I read recently where an expert said that more gasoline ignition incidents at gas pumps are created by women sliding back into their cars while the gas is still pumping. The static of panty hose, silk, and vinyl creates a buildup that the fumes can't ignore.
Which is just another good reason to never wear pantyhose. ugh!
It seems in it`s liquid form gasoline has such a thick oil base that a simple spark cannot ignite it, it will go out before it can do anything, but when it is spread out like you said in a vapor, watch out. I remember when I was a kid filling a dixie cup with gasoline from our lawnmower and pouring it on a tree stump then throwing a lit match on it that thing practically exploded before the match ever hit that stump, it was like an atomic explosion, mushroom cloud and everything "FROOOOOM!" I think me and my brother lost our eyebrows and the hair in front of our heads lol!. Matter of fact, I know we did.
Cell phones do not generate static electricity.
However, clothing does.

Which is why I go through a six-pack of this stuff every winter. I'm a freakin' capacitor.
You need to ask SheLion.
LOL! Yes, very necessary in drier climes! Here in Florida, there's only a relatively few days where the static can shock you off your feet!
She should have been cited at least for waving a FIRE ARM in public.
How about a syrofoam cup? :)
I know for a fact, gasoline vapor is flammable.
"Now. After all that ribbing, here's what you're missing: gasoline VAPOR is INFLAMMABLE. It is very explosive in air and can be READILY ignited by something as seemingly insignificant as a static spark."
Yes, gas vapors are explosive. But, I still believe the temp of a cigarette butt is under the flash point. I don't have my "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" with me here in So. Car. but mebbe some one can check.
Now I can offer a couple scenario that could explain the fire.
1) Some of the ash fell off and the air/oxygen added by the movement, heated the ash high enough.
2) Static discharges are much hotter than butts.
I am merely providing small snippets of education here so as to ensure prople do not accept the first offered explanation.
I'm lookin' alright, but not at the dolphins.
LOL! Only someone in Florida could refer to NC as a "drier clime".
You know how in the cartoons, they take "gunpowder" and make a pile, and then a looooong sprinkle trail which fizzes nice and slow till it gets to the big pile?
It doesn't work that way! It's much more of a Ker-whoosh-whump!!! (Don't try this at home)
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