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Post by Bluefront on Feb 4, 2010 7:44:17 GMT -5
The stuff is not safe, no matter how careful you are. It can go off without warning, at practically any time. About the only time it's reasonably safe is when it's in a closed container....like a scooter gas tank. Even then......
Many people are around gasoline all the time, with never an incident.....this causes a somewhat casual attitude, when handling the stuff. Wrong. It can go off like a bomb, under the right circumstances. I think about this all the time....like yesterday when I was replacing the gas lines on my Roketa 50. I waited till it got a little warmer, and did the job outside my garage, away from the house....and I had a fire extinguisher right there, ready to use. Why am I so cautious.....well I've seen what can happen.
Guy parks his older Honda in the basement, and forgets to turn off the gas valve. The carb float doesn't shut off completely, the carb leaks, and when the gas water heater turns on......the bike catches fire, and burns down the house. (I knew the guy).
On a Honda show-room, a porter replaces a florissant light bulb, and while testing, the bulb falls out while lighted and lands across a Honda cycle gas tank (it was closed). The Honda catches fire, as do the twenty or so bikes and the whole show-room. The guy on the ladder escapes luckily. (worked there)
A mechanic is removing a gas tank from a car on an overhead rack....spills some gas on his cloths. A nearby person was using a torch.....the clothes catch fire, the mechanic is burned, dies. (At the next dealership down the street).
A mechanic is checking for vacuum leaks using a can of carb cleaner (I do this myself).....accidentally sprays a bad plug wire, engine catches fire, and a leaky gas line goes off....car burns up. (saw it happen)
A guy parks his car in his garage (located under his house)....a near-by electric freezer has an electrical fire caused by a mouse nest. Somehow the car's gas tank catches fire.....burns down the house. (a friend of mine, his parents house).
A guy across the street from me....starting his John Deere riding mower, the engine catches fire (no explanation), the whole thing burns to a crisp.
Get the point.....I could go on with these sorts of incidents that I know about. But the point is.....Gasoline is Dangerous. Treat it with the utmost care, have a fire-extinguisher handy, work outside. Be careful!!!!!
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Post by owenbrau on Feb 4, 2010 11:25:21 GMT -5
Just imagine back in the day when garages didn't have lifts, they had grease pits. Lots of mechanics died in those.
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Post by buddymom on Feb 7, 2010 4:29:30 GMT -5
wow sorry to hear about all of those incidents. but WOW we all need to stay away from you ....... it seems like you know too many people that have had real ACCIDENTS.
stay safe
t
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Post by Bluefront on Feb 7, 2010 5:46:14 GMT -5
^^^^^You have to realize I'm now retired, and worked on cycles and cars my entire life as a profession. Before that, from age 15 and up, I worked on cycles as a hobby. Doing so I've probably seen more gasoline incidents than most. Plus....when you work for a dealer, you're around other people using gasoline. Some of these guys are complete morons. I was working on a carb, still on the bike. The moron service manager comes over and leans down to see what I was doing......smoking a cigarette. Could have killed him myself, and if the gasoline had had gone off, it might have done so. That sort of casual attitude, which is quite common......causes plenty of incidents.  One more incident that was really spectacular.....car mechanic spills some gas on the concrete floor. He worked at one end of a line of ten bays. Next to all ten garage doors, is a long water drain channel (covered with a grate). The guy uses a squeegee and pushes the gas into the drain, and hoses it down. Of course gas floats on water.....at the other end bay somebody is using a torch. The gas goes off, and there is a wall of flames extending the entire length of the shop. We lucked out on that one. I was on the other side of the building.....and ready to push my tool box outside if the guys on the other side couldn't handle it. Took four fire extinguishers..... |
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Post by buddymom on Feb 12, 2010 11:40:01 GMT -5
i was just joking. but you have had your experiences. lol.
t
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Post by qwertydude on Feb 13, 2010 1:41:30 GMT -5
Terrible accidents but there's always a risk when dealing with flammables, and what other fuel source really is safe? Heck even flour can explode given the right conditions.
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Post by Bluefront on Feb 13, 2010 5:45:48 GMT -5
Diesel fuel is safer than gasoline.....but yes, any fuel can catch fire. And other things can explode, like flour dust. But gasoline is the worst by far. I see people filling up their cars while smoking...unbelievable. But the stuff is so commonly used without incident, people don't really think about it as being dangerous. I did a PDI on a new Jeep Cherokee some years ago.....not much of a deal. You looked the thing over, checked all the accessories, aired the tires, drove it around the block, etc. About a month later, the owner parked the thing in his driveway....looked outside about a 1/2 hour later and his Jeep was burning. We got the thing towed back the next day. The motor was burned up. The gas line to the fuel rail was still connected. Chrysler sent over a bunch of tech guys to check it out....found nothing. I suspected the owner poured gas on the engine and set it off. But who knows? Had that thing been in his garage, his house may have burned down. In the old days, all the car garages were detached from the main house. But no more......your car or scooter burns in the garage nowadays, so does your house.  |
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Post by owenbrau on Feb 13, 2010 9:35:21 GMT -5
I used to be a volunteer firefighter, and we had that call one afternoon. Guy calls in that his car is on fire. 1st arriving squad discovers he neglected to mention it was in the garage. That one rapidly went from 1 to 3 alarms, as we also had to lay 5000 feet of 6-inch to reach the nearest hydrant. He lost the garage, two cars, and also had damage to the house.
The things we would see on safety inspection; gasoline cans stored in the basement, massive electrical octupuses plugged into a single ungrounded outlet, all the classics. I'm surprised we never ran across someone with real candles lighting up their Christmas tree (I've lost count of the number of tree fires, indoor and out, we dealt with).
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Post by nickiemcnichols on Feb 14, 2010 3:25:13 GMT -5
Years ago, my first day on a new job. A guy on my crew comes in and tells me he was told to burn a brush pile. He held a gasoline can. I told him NOT to use gasoline, get some diesel fuel instead. He didn't check to see that there was still some gas in the can, tops it off with diesel, pours it on the brush pile, ignites it.
It explodes, knocking him back several feet, burning his face, hands, and arms. He spent several days in the hospital, and lost a month of work. He didn't look too great after that, and was always at risk working in the sun.
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Post by garyr on Feb 15, 2010 22:48:17 GMT -5
Has all the additives added to our "blended" gasoline done anything to make it safer or do they only detract from the mileage we get?
A number of years ago at work I was assigned to put on a demo on the explosive power of gasoline. Turns out a gallon of gasoline contained and ignited has similar power of 5 sticks of dynamite. An eye opener for me.
Garyr
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Post by feralsparky on Aug 10, 2011 0:13:03 GMT -5
Just imagine back in the day when garages didn't have lifts, they had grease pits. Lots of mechanics died in those. Thats not a back in the day thing, They still use grease pits at many oil change places including the one I quit from at Walmart. |
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Post by TERRA NUVO on Aug 10, 2011 0:51:32 GMT -5
Boy what a great reminder blue front was to stay on everybody's ass's for stuff before it even happen
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Post by bullet on Aug 10, 2011 7:30:48 GMT -5
Cell phones. Do not even have your cell phone on you when you fuel up.
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Post by scootdudeman on Aug 10, 2011 14:28:09 GMT -5
I have a battery under my seat and I'm scared a drop of gas could drip on the battery positive terminal and blow up everything.
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Post by feralsparky on Aug 11, 2011 1:28:22 GMT -5
I have a battery under my seat and I'm scared a drop of gas could drip on the battery positive terminal and blow up everything. Your fine, The gas would have to contact both a ground and the positive connection at the same time, now if you dumped gas on the battery then that's when you run like hell. |
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Post by mechaniczman on Aug 11, 2011 1:55:21 GMT -5
I was pooring gas on an already lit fire with a 2 gallon gas can with quite a bit of gas in it...probly about a gallon. I got it too close to the fire and the nozzle on the can caught on fire. I put it out with either my hand or a rag i dont remember...but how the hell did that gas can not blow up? There was FIRE on the nozzle i JUST poored gas out of!!! im lucky to be alive.
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Post by dudley on Aug 11, 2011 10:34:28 GMT -5
watched a guy smoke a cigarette and pump gas. the gas splashed back and caught his hand and wrist on fire. cop at the next pump didnt seem to care at all until the flames had spread to his shoulder. then the cop ran over and put it out and arrested the guy for possession of an illegal fire arm.
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Post by feralsparky on Aug 13, 2011 21:44:01 GMT -5
I was pooring gas on an already lit fire with a 2 gallon gas can with quite a bit of gas in it...probly about a gallon. I got it too close to the fire and the nozzle on the can caught on fire. I put it out with either my hand or a rag i dont remember...but how the hell did that gas can not blow up? There was FIRE on the nozzle i JUST poored gas out of!!! im lucky to be alive. The Gasoline is non flammable. The Fumes are. You can drop a lit cigarette in a barrel of gasoline and it will not explode. That is a movie prop effect. |
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Post by scooterwayne on Aug 14, 2011 9:29:14 GMT -5
Thats true !!. Its not the product that will get you its the FUMES.  Diesel fuel has such a low flash point you need a flame to get it to burn. I'm a former Haz-mat tech of 15yrs.  |
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Post by silverfox96 on Nov 18, 2011 14:32:57 GMT -5
Had a friend that worked as a fireman near my home town. During one of the training sessions the instructor placed a completely full 2 gallon pail of gasoline at the top of a stairway. Lit a match and dropped it in the pail. The match just went out. Then everyone went down the stairway and got well back from the last step at the bottom. The instructor then lit a match and tossed it at the bottom of the stairway. WHOOOOSH!!! A fire trail straight up the stairway and the bucket/pail just exploded!
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Post by timber on Mar 9, 2012 23:05:10 GMT -5
Oh you know it! Ive always wondered about the wisdom of having 12vdc electrical wiring to a float sensor inside a gasoline tank where a spark or short circuit could be the ignitor for a good sized bomb, but I was told the amount of current is too small, still, always scary thinking of that. Just imagine this, back around the 1950's era and before, housewives used to wash their husbands work shirts and clothes in gasoline! it was considered to be a cheap method of dry cleaning clothes. 1 gallon of gas has the explosive power of 83 pounds of dynamite There is a film from that era showing the dangers of doing this, there must have been many accidents and fires for them to do this film, the gasoline portion starts around 2:30 into the 9 minute or so film; More Dangerous Than Dynamite California State Fire Marshal www.archive.org/details/more_dangerous_then_dynamiteThere's also this one too; www.archive.org/details/farm_petroleum_safety |
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Post by spandi on Mar 10, 2012 2:01:51 GMT -5
Gasoline!? Where is the Jetsons type atomic flying car (or Hovascoot) we were all promised we'd HAVE by now?
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Post by happyoldscoot on Mar 10, 2012 20:08:30 GMT -5
Years ago, when I was taking a Power Squadron course for boating, the instructor pointed out that fumes from 1/2 cup of gasoline had the explosive power of two sticks of dynamite. I never get casual around gasoline.
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