Posted on 05/20/2004 2:54:49 PM PDT by skyman
Static blamed for burning car at Springville gas pump
By Amy Choate Deseret Morning News
SPRINGVILLE — A fire chief says static electricity generated by a woman sliding across a car seat sparked a fire that engulfed a sport-utility vehicle at a gas pump Tuesday.
Springville Fire Chief Phil Whitney said Shauna Raught had placed the gas nozzle into her 1996 Isuzu Trooper and returned to the car to sit with her 5-year-old son. As the fuel approached the $30 mark, the Springville resident slid out of the car and reached for the nozzle.
That's when she saw a spark leap from her hand to the nozzle, igniting the fumes.
Startled, Raught jumped back, apparently spilling fuel on the car. The blaze spread to the passenger side of her vehicle where her son was sitting, strapped into a car seat.
Other customers at the Maverik gas station near I-15 at about 1400 North and 1700 West rescued the screaming boy from the burning car.
Two other vehicles were damaged by the flames, Whitney said. Raught and her son were treated for burns at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and released, but the car was destroyed.
Fuel-pump fires ignited by static electricity are rare, especially considering that Americans gas up their cars an estimated 11 billion to 12 billion times a year.
But officials say this is the third such fire reported in Utah.
One previous incident also occurred after a woman sat in her car while the gas was pumping, then exited and touched the fuel handle. The other fire began when a man filled a portable gas container sitting on a truck bed.
More than 10 fuel fires were reported in the country last year, resulting from various scenarios involving static electricity.
Because of the extreme flammability of gasoline, many gas stations display stickers warning customers against getting back in their vehicles and using cellular phones or other electronic devices while pumping gas.
Experts from the Petroleum Equipment Institute, a trade association for companies involved in the petroleum industry, say static electricity generated from entering and exiting a car is much more dangerous than any threat posed by using a cellular phone at the pump.
According to the institute's Web site, the threat of cellular phones starting a fire is unsubstantiated.
But they claim to have sufficient documentation showing static electricity is a legitimate danger.
The most common mistake drivers make in generating static electricity is by re-entering their vehicle after the gasoline is flowing, according to officials.
"If you (do) get back into your car, touch the car or the gas pump (when you get out) before you reach for the nozzle," Whitney said. "That will ground you and dissipate the static electricity."
Gasoline is so flammable that every approved gasoline hose is lined with a metal conductor to help with friction that can be created by the flow of the fuel.
Carbon fibers in the hoses are designed to conduct the static electricity away so an arc is not formed, thereby preventing sparks from igniting within the fuel pump
But even the fumes can be deadly, especially in dry weather and in dry climates.
"The drier it is, the more likely it is to happen," said Richard Christiansen, associate dean of the engineering and technology department at Brigham Young University. "It's very unlikely to happen in a rain storm or in fog. The moisture won't allow any charge to build up."
This type of thing is the source of the "Explosive Cell Phone" urban legend.
Sounds like this woman and her son got off pretty well considering.
Isn't a Trooper an SUV. If so, it probably spontaneously combusted. It had to be behind it somehow.
Definitely not a cell phone caused explosion.
That's impossible!
This is the reason I have leather seats.
If you think gasoline is explosive, just wait until you try filling up with hydrogen!
Remind me not to buy gas when I come by for BBQ this weekend.
BTW..."Regular" is selling for 2.39.9 in Eureka today
Doesn't matter. I've got leather in my wife's PT Cruiser and it generates as much static as my cloth seats.
It's the "static charge" load that is built up in the car itself driving down the road. You recharge yourself everytime you climb into the car.
Rule #1 - Never climb back into the car while pumping gas.
Rule #2 - If you "have to" get back in the car, be sure to touch the body of the car, or other metal object before grabbing the pump nozzle.
One of those Utah things maybe?
Wearing silk panties? Chip manufacturers and vendors won't let women wear such things.
On the other hand, the overall story sounds a little fishy to this electromagnetics engineer.
Nah, the woman doesn't have the deep pockets. The gas station does, however, especially if it is a major oil company chain.
The problem arises when you go to reach for the nozzle while filling. There are gas fumes mixed with air flowing out of the tank filler neck as gas goes into the tank. Sometimes when the light is right you can see the vapors. The static electricity spark is just like the spark plug in your car and....WHOOM!
In Kalifornia, they have a state law requiring all gasoline pumps to have a vapor recovery system installed. You may have seen them in the movies. It looks like there is a vacuum hose fitted over the nozzle of the gas pump. When the pump is in the filler neck, the outter hose sucks the fumes harmlessly into a recovery system.
This vapor recovery system is mandated in Kalifornia because of the air pollution that the raw gas escaping into the atmosphere causes, but a side benefit is that there are no stray vapors around the filler neck to explode if there is a static discharge.
Now the enterprising lawyer will sue the gas station owner and the oil company, claiming that they had the technology to prevent this tragedy, but for the cost of a few pennies decided not to voluntarily install vapor recovery systems in ALL of their stations nationwide.
I hate lawyers.
You finally got it right after having it explained to you on the other thread.
Overall? That static can cause a gasoline explosion?
Check out some video of this rescue. Notice the cop standing as far away from the burning car as possible clutching his gun... getting ready to shoot the fire out if necessary. You can see another motorist spraying the car with fire extinguishers and then later breaking the window with one to get the kid out. The motorist cut his hand breaking the window and ended up getting stiches....
http://www.4utah.com/video_promos/videoplay2.aspx?idO53FEEA-D3D7-4B0D-9790-4E31C27F507A&typeÉdeo
And, get some anti-static spray from the grocery and use it on your seats. My last truck had fabric seats and I got tired of being shocked every time I got out in the winter. The stuff works great. Anyway, when you are fueling you should always stay with the nozzle just in case it slips out.
I admit I was wrong. This is the way it'll play out....
Could this be one of those strange reasons we are not allowed (by law) to pump our own gas in Oregon?
Plastic gas cans sliding around in a plastic lined pick up bed generate static electricity as well
containing higly explosive fumes...
Never fill them in the bed of the truck..put them on the ground..
Ground the nozzle befor fueling...never get back in the vehicle once you begin fueling..
Hot dry summer days...you get fumes (highly explosive) and static electricity...
imo
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