Posted on 05/14/2008 10:14:38 AM PDT by kingattax
PORT SALERNO - Members of the Martin County Fire Rescue Hazmat team responded to a fuel clean-up Tuesday morning after a boater pumped gasoline into his fishing rod holder instead of his gas tank.
The boater pumped about 100 gallons of gasoline at the Finest Kind Marina fuel dock before he noticed the problem, but only about 15 gallons polluted the water, marina employees said.
The rest of the gasoline seeped into the boat's bilge tank, witnesses said.
The man's fishing boat was towed from the fuel dock to Sandsprit Park so Hazmat officials could secure the fuel, said Jeff Alter, Fire Rescue bureau chief.
Marina employees said it's not uncommon to see boaters pump fuel into fishing rod holders because the holder is often close to the fuel tank hole.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
No one said it....?
What a Dinghy.
Got a call from a place in Germany about an incident. Seems a sergeant was called to refuel a generator at the end of the runway and he got out there, looked about and saw something that looked like a big container with a spout through the top.
He pumped about the same (100 G) through it until he discovered that he'd really been filling up a portable, end-of -runway control tower that is used sometimes by flight commanders who evaluate their pilots on takeoff's etc. and the 'spout' was a hole through which a waveoff flare could be fired.
Next morning after I briefed this to the General, he said "Get me than man's name ---I already know his rank".
Agreed.
As a long time resident, I have seen folks take 12 foot boats that are practically not seaworthy and go 10 miles off shore in the Gulf to fish. No radio, no life jackets, no flares, no float plan.
They seem to think of the Gulf as just a big lake. The lucky ones make it back.
The unlucky ones make the paper.
Some people are just plain stupid.
I know a fuel oil company that ended up buying a woman’s house after it pumped 100 gallons of fuel oil into her basement. They were at the wrong address and this lady had her oil furnace replaced with a gas one a few years earlier. The oil filler stem was beside the house and was not sealed.
The address was the same and the road name was one letter different in spelling from where the oil was supposed to be delivered.
“but only about 15 gallons polluted the water.” Guess his bilge pumps were workn.
It is a sad fact that anyone with the money can buy a boat and promptly go out and do something very stupid, including kill themselves (and/or others).
No brain required.
Usually (NOT ALWAYS!), the offender is a new boat owner, has never taken the first safe boating class, and knows nothing about boating dangers.
Boating is supposed to be fun, ya know. What could possibly go wrong?
To this day I'm sure why he disconnected it.
The result was about two gallons of gas before I heard something funny, the boat stank for a year.
His name is Ron so we referred to the boat henceforth as the ExRon Valdez.
Conversely, there are instances where the rod should be pumped into the ‘fish’ hole and not the one with the gas...
I’ve heard claims of a heating fuel delivery man putting the fuel oil down the water well instead of in a below grade storage tank.
"You don't know the POWER of the Stupid side of the Force, young Skywalker!"
My parents had a similar experience. 250 gallons of heating oil into their basement. Fortunately it was an old house and the basement had a dirt floor. They removed a heluva lot of dirt.
Actually if the guy wasnt paying attention and spun off the filler cap and then put in the nozzel and the rod holder was that close its concevable but still frigen stupid...Id like to know what boat mfgr let that design go through as it had to be an in hull rod holder.
Giving the guy the benefit of the doubt, I don't think it takes a tremendous amount of stupid. Just a bit of distraction.
Rod Holder:
Fuel Filler (with cap removed):
His wife was also very disappointed on their wedding night.
Yeah but does it say FUEL in 2 languages.
I know a guy that hooked up the icemaker water line to the natual gas line under a house.
Fortunately the folks weren’t home when the icemaker cycled.
Blew the doors off the refrig, half the kitchen gone.
The refrig was as round as a pumpkin.
To me this sounds like a major design flaw. A cheap neck and cap would fix it.
$400 + bucks?
Sounds to me like there were large quantatites of beer involved.
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