Smoking= we all go poof!

[Anakah]

My hubby and I were at a gas station when I saw these idiots right next to us lighting their cigarettes and smoking while filling up their car!

I was yelling at my man to hurry up before the idiots blew us all to hell. Who smokes while filling up their tank WITH their car running!??! We filled up asap and got the hell out of there. I was yelling out my window the whole time to BF and got snarky looks from the smokers.

It was at a gas station where there was nobody to turn the pumps off cuz it was late at night. Kind of like a self serve after certain hours. But damn! Hubby wanted me to STFU but I had every right to be upset since they were playing with fire--literally! There were no explosions but I was pretty pissed!

[PepperElf]

Who smokes while filling up their tank WITH their car running!??!

Whistler from Blade? Well I'm not sure if the engine was running but he sure didn't care if the gas got in too well at least. While smoking of course.


although yeah i'm pretty sure it wasn't really gas in the movie. cos stuff like that *isn't* safe.

[AnaKhouri]

Reminds of the scene from Zoolander where the models have a 'gas fight'...then one of them lights up a cigarette.

The next scene is their funeral, if I recall.

[Ophbalance]

To be fair... you're not very likely to set yourself ablaze with a lit cigarette in this situation. The more likely scenario is that someone is able to spark a fire due to electric shock. Mythbusters (I know, it's television, but they're usually pretty spot on) has done this experiment, as have others. It's that whole Fire Triangle bit, where you need the right mixture of Air/Fuel/Heat mixture. They threw a lit match into a toilet full of fuel, and even that wasn't enough. It's the escaping vapors as you fill up that are the risk factor. So long as you don't have an ignition source near the nozzle it should be fine. And even then, the mixture has to be juuuuuuuuuuuust right.

[greek_jester]

To be fair... you're not very likely to set yourself ablaze with a lit cigarette in this situation. The more likely scenario is that someone is able to spark a fire due to electric shock. Mythbusters (I know, it's television, but they're usually pretty spot on) has done this experiment, as have others. It's that whole Fire Triangle bit, where you need the right mixture of Air/Fuel/Heat mixture. They threw a lit match into a toilet full of fuel, and even that wasn't enough. It's the escaping vapors as you fill up that are the risk factor. So long as you don't have an ignition source near the nozzle it should be fine. And even then, the mixture has to be juuuuuuuuuuuust right.

It might be a one in a million chance, but that's one chance too many for me *shudders*

[DeltaSierra]

This reminds me of 2 guys who were smoking on top of an oil tank at a refinery and it blew up, just over 2 weeks ago.

http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/01/ma...p-of-oil-tank/

[icmedia]

A couple of weeks back I was watching, in horror, as two guys were attempting to jump a vehicle right in front of the gas pumps outside while I was buying beer...I mentioned something to the cashier about how unsafe that seemed, and she laughed and said, "Yeah, that's my brother-he's stupid."

I hightailed it out of there.

[PepperElf]

To be fair... you're not very likely to set yourself ablaze with a lit cigarette in this situation. The more likely scenario is that someone is able to spark a fire due to electric shock. Mythbusters (I know, it's television, but they're usually pretty spot on) has done this experiment, as have others. It's that whole Fire Triangle bit, where you need the right mixture of Air/Fuel/Heat mixture. They threw a lit match into a toilet full of fuel, and even that wasn't enough. It's the escaping vapors as you fill up that are the risk factor. So long as you don't have an ignition source near the nozzle it should be fine. And even then, the mixture has to be juuuuuuuuuuuust right.

the hard part is... have you ever seen a gas station that *didn't* have vapors?

now granted it's never as blowyuppy as hollywood shows it - heck according to hollywood 007 can shoot a fuel tank with a .9mm and make it go kaboom (which mythbusters thoroughly trashed!). but... there's bound to be at least some vapor, especially right after fueling.

i figure if i concede to staying off my cell phone for less than 5 minutes ... the others can stay off the smokes for 5 minutes too.

[Ophbalance]

now granted it's never as blowyuppy as hollywood shows it - heck according to hollywood 007 can shoot a fuel tank with a .9mm and make it go kaboom (which mythbusters thoroughly trashed!). but... there's bound to be at least some vapor, especially right after fueling.

Ah, but it's the concentration that's the important part. The only area you really need to be concerned with is recovery area near the top of the fuel port on the car. Otherwise it's far too thinned out to catch fire.

[PepperElf]

ya but all you need is one moron to screw it up for everyone else and

[wolfie]

two guys were attempting to jump a vehicle right in front of the gas pumps

But what are you supposed to do if the battery decides to quit right after you've filled up? For obvious reasons, you can't drive it to a location away from the pumps for a jump start.

[dalesys]

But what are you supposed to do if the battery decides to quit right after you've filled up? For obvious reasons, you can't drive it to a location away from the pumps for a jump start.

Push it? The Toadrotor mini-pickup I'm driving this week will only push start...

At my age... Decisions, decisions... do we want to call 911 for a fire or a heart attack?

[PepperElf]

ya. throw it in neutral and push it to where it's safer to jump start

you can also push it with another car if you're careful - and not going too fast.

[MadMike]

It might be a one in a million chance, but that's one chance too many for me *shudders*

Exactly. A freak accident involving static electricity happened in my area just a few year ago.

[Jetfire]

My hubby and I were at a gas station when I saw these idiots right next to us lighting their cigarettes and smoking while filling up their car!

I was yelling at my man to hurry up before the idiots blew us all to hell. Who smokes while filling up their tank WITH their car running!??! We filled up asap and got the hell out of there. I was yelling out my window the whole time to BF and got snarky looks from the smokers.

It was at a gas station where there was nobody to turn the pumps off cuz it was late at night. Kind of like a self serve after certain hours. But damn! Hubby wanted me to STFU but I had every right to be upset since they were playing with fire--literally! There were no explosions but I was pretty pissed!

The biggest wtf to me isn't just that they were smoking. But also that there wasn't an accessible emergency shut off button. I never looked it up, but I saw enough of them around, usually with big signs, that I thought that was mandatory for gas stations. After all, even if it is an automatic 24h station, what would be the plan if someone needed to emergency shut off the pumps?

And yeah, for the comment about jumping at the pumps, you should push it so you're away from the pumps (and probably the storage tanks) before you do any work on the car. It's more polite for anyone who might be waiting, and it would be safer, especially if you're doing anything with a high chance of sparks.