Unbelievably Stupid!

[Primer]

Does anybody really not understand that gasoline fumes are explosive? Does anybody not understand just WHY you should not smoke while you are refueling a vehicle?

Apparently the idiot we witnessed this morning had no clue. My husband and I pulled into a rather large self-service station this morning to fill up. We sat and watched as the guy ahead of us lit a cigarette, then proceeded to put in his credit card and start fueling. We immediately moved!

But wait, this was not your typical idiot, this idiot was driving a company truck...with the business name and 4 different phone numbers for different parts of Texas, including a toll-free number plastered all over the sides.

7:55 am, I'm on my cell phone, calling each number, getting recordings with no way to leave a message. I kept trying till 8:05 am when a live person finally picked up the phone. I gave them the vehicle number, the license plate number, and a concise account of what we saw.

At least the people in the office seemed to be a little concerned. I almost hope that driver lost his job over it. This was not a young inexperienced kid. This guy was 45-55 age range and ought to know better! We grew up when playing with gasoline and fire was fairly common, and we all KNOW they don't mix!

GAH!!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Bet the dumbass dropped it and put it out under his shoe, too. I am always kind of paranoid that some dim bulb will do this while I am at the gas station.

[MadMike]

It's bad enough when a customer does it, but I actually saw an employee doing it! She was restocking the motor oil display, which was right by the pumps. If anyone should know better, I think it would be the employees.

The gas station was actually part of a supermarket, but located across the parking lot from the store itself. I contemplated going inside and saying something to a manager, but I was in a hurry to be somewhere. Maybe I should have. I have no problem if one of these idiots wants to blow themselves up, more power to them, in fact. But they have no right to put others in danger like that.

[tonydanza]

I don't even talk on my cellphone when fueling!!

[MadMike]

I don't even talk on my cellphone when fueling!!

I used to, back before I ever heard of the potential danger. Now I leave the thing in the car.

I've heard that it's been disproven, but I'm certainly not taking any chances.

[Banrion]

I used to, back before I ever heard of the potential danger. Now I leave the thing in the car.

I've heard that it's been disproven, but I'm certainly not taking any chances.

The static from silk women's panties is MORE likely to cause an explosion at a gas station than a cellphone. GREAT episode of Mythbusters!

[MadMike]

The static from silk women's panties is MORE likely to cause an explosion at a gas station than a cellphone.

Well, then it's a good thing I stopped wearing them.

[Tria]

The static from silk women's panties is MORE likely to cause an explosion at a gas station than a cellphone. GREAT episode of Mythbusters!

I'll stick with cotton then.... They breathe....

[Antisocial_Worker]

I must take offense at the title of this thread... I feel this kind of stupidity is entirely believable. The real question is -- is it ignorance or entitlement that would drive someone to smoke around flammable vapors?

[One-Fang]

It can get worse. There is the pre-pre-hack story of the woman who backed into a pump and was distraught that the staff were more concerned with switching the pump off and securing the area than checking on her. I think it was a PFB type post.

[Gurndigarn]

I must take offense at the title of this thread... I feel this kind of stupidity is entirely believable. The real question is -- is it ignorance or entitlement that would drive someone to smoke around flammable vapors?

Doubt it's entitlement... probably not ignorance... mostly, I think it's brain cells not firing properly. Y'know, the ones that say "Those stupid news stories... they come from somewhere, after all."

[PhotoChick]

I'll top that. Back when I was a firefighter the career guys had it written into to their contract they could not smoke. At work, at home, anywhere. Now I dont think the county was gonna go into your home to make sure your not smoking. But the station next to ours was new and had cameras everywhere. It was a widely known "rumor" that when the people from that station would come over to our station to fill up the fire truck, they would smoke between the big gas tanks and the fire truck as to not be seen by the camera in our parking lot. I never personally saw anyone smoke back there but every so often we would find cigarette butts.

[phillippbo]

Back when I worked at a gas station, I made it a habit of visually checking the pumps when I authorized them to work (basically, it helped me know who had gas where, and helped with drive offs). Anyway, if I saw a customer light up, I'd hit the emergency stop contactor (fancy term for the big, red button what turns off the juice to the pumps) and announce over the PA:

"Pump <number>, put out the cigarette so that I can turn the pumps back on."

If that didn't work, I'd repeat it with a description of either what the customer was wearing or what their car looked like. If they STILL didn't get the hint, I just left the pumps off until they came inside. Interestingly enough, this only happened a few times, but I had my speil down:

"I'm sorry, but if your cigarette were to ignite the gasoline vapors, then the flame would travel to the hose, through the pump and pipes, and into the underground tanks almost before you could blink. Since we're sitting on roughly 20,000 gallons of gas, I don't need to tell you that would not only take out the store and the parking lot, but probably a good block or so around us. I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to die just yet."

Interestingly enough, I never had anyone not get that.

(BTW - my store had 2 10,0000 gallon tanks. We rarely actually had more than 15,000 gallons, but I liked using the nice, round 20,000 gallon number. It sounded more urgent, if you will. Also, there are actually safeguards in place to try to mitigate the chances of such a thing happening, but nothing is 100% and I didn't want to be the one that tested it.)

[ditchdj]

I know first-hand how flammable gasoline is. When I was a kid and I'd see a pile of pavement ants on the walk in my backyard my dad would douse them with lighter fluid and set them on fire. Well one day I decided to douse them with gasoline. Instead of the docile flames that result when you ignite lighter fluid I ended up have to jump back from the resulting fireball that came at me! Luckily for me I jumped back fast enough so I didnt get it right in the face.

[Pagan]

I'll stick with cotton then.... They breathe....

Uh, they both breath. They're both natural fibers and all natural fibers breath. Sorry, textile and fashion major!