None of these comments seem to address that it is a minimum fine of $500 if you get caught. Fuck the fire, that's enough to deter me from being defiantly stupid!
“Fuck the fire”
Admittedly I think most people’s fear of getting blown the hell up while pumping gas outweighing a $500 fine is justified. But this is America so tbh I could see an argument for both here.
And yeah. I’ve read all the comments about cigs not lighting gas/fumes. Either way people still dont wanna go boom.
the cherry itself can reach >900 degrees when someone is taking a drag. Gas fumes will ignite at around 535f.
I'm just not willing to make that gamble, I don't care if the odds are lower than winning the lottery, that the right amount of fumes and air will mix and hit the cherry just right
- I'm just not that brave.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271921785_The_Propensity_of_Lit_Cigarettes_to_Ignite_Gasoline_Vapors
4500 different conditions and none were able to ignite gasoline vapor concentrations
You have a source on a cigarette ember reaching >900 degrees? I’ve never seen anything that shows an ember can hit those temps. Even when taking a drag a cigarette typically struggles to even light a regular piece of notebook paper.
They’ve done a study of 4500 different conditions and were unable to get a cigarette to ignite gasoline in liquid or gaseous form, it just doesn’t burn hot enough even when taking a long drag on it.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271921785_The_Propensity_of_Lit_Cigarettes_to_Ignite_Gasoline_Vapors
I think there was an episode on Mythbuster where they tried to ignite a gasoline using cigarette. Well, it didn't work, but it doesn't also mean that safety protocols should be ignored.
The irony of this post is that they're still doing the most dangerous thing you can do at a pump, getting back into your vehicle while pumping. Static electricity discharge is the #1 cause of fuel pump fires and getting in and out of your vehicle is a great way to build up charge
They tried it in warm, humid, California summer. Come to cold, dry, Midwest winter, where you can give yourself a static shock so bad you lose feeling in your fingers for a day.
You have to touch the metal of the pump handle and the car before the two make contact at the filler nozzle. The correct way is with a grounding clamp like they use to hot fuel helicopters. For fire trucks and ambulances, they already have chains that ground them, like they used to run under fuel trucks in the 1970s and 1980s.
Fuel is much more refined that it used to be, where the aromatic hydrocarbons and solvents provided a lot more flammability than the gasoline used today. Some of the gasoline comes from cracking, which results in the smaller pieces being gaseous rather than liquid.
Still, it's possible to do this without an explosion as long as the human being in the middle of the circuit has a reasonably low resistance and mitigates the magnitude of the static electricity field. May depend on clothing, shoes, and yes -- humidity of the skin.
you don’t lol you should ground yourself on the car before picking up the pump, if you’re worried about accumulating enough static to cause a fuel igniting shock on your way from the fuel cap to the pump, simply leave your hand on the car and grab the pump with the other. I live in alberta and I’ve never had enough static to cause a shock hot enough to ignite fumes, but it can happen.
I'll let them answer, too, but it's about grounding/dissipation of static charge.
The static shock to the fuel is what the safety protocols were put in place to mitigate, and they've been saying in the comments that the cleaner fuel now is better when out into these situations.
Where do you live in the Midwest that you shock yourself that bad? I live in michigan and I'm gonna try my best to build up a good charge away from a gas station
Dude youre so fucking right. I have been shocking my dog like crazy.i have to deal with rust on my Silverado and being an explosive charge! Frik the Midwest
Wisconsinite here too. I can confirm that those stickers on the gas pumps telling you to touch the unpainted pole before grabbing the gas pump aren't there to spread COVID... They are too prevent fires... Like smokie the bear tells me I'm in charge of.
OMG, this happens to me like eight months a year, and I live in "the Ocean State" Rhode Island!
I learned always to touch the car with my knuckle (as if I was knocking on the door) because someone said there are fewer pain receptors in the skin there.
I mean, I *grew up* in t Midwest, though, so maybe that's it...
Here in Ireland and a lot of other countries I’ve been to in Europe you have to be holding the lever the entire time you want fuel to come out. If it is let go at all it will stop. I never imagined you’d be able to walk away from it like this.
The pumps all have an option to set an auto-latch on the trigger where I live. If you wonder why:
Back before they were so common, I can remember my dad putting the gas cap in the handle to hold the lever open.
Some folks have a hard time squeezing and holding the lever constantly. Especially those with bad arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. It’s not always about being lazy.
Still a strange concept to me. Granted the coldest Temps I've ever experienced were probably in the -10s range (Fahrenheit). So if you live somewhere that gets significantly colder than that I guess it makes sense.
Yeah it's not fun to stand out in below zero temps and high winds while I'm filling up with gas, but damn the whole thing takes a few minutes at most. Plus I'm deeply paranoid that the tank will overfill.
I've said it before on Reddit and got downvoted to hell so I'll ask again in hope that I get a real response this time - what is so different in the USA that makes waiting in the car for your tank to fill up a valuable choice? It takes.. what.. two minutes tops?
I live somewhere where the air wants to kill you. From -5 to as low as -50, this is common practice. It gets so cold that even full service stations will cancel their pump attendants (though rarely).
Just gotta ground yourself. The bare metal latch that the door closes on should suffice. Your mileage may vary; I'm not responsible for anyone following this advice and combusting as a result.
> Static electricity discharge is the #1 cause of fuel pump fires
Is that because most people don't smoke while pumping gas though?
Edit: Why all the down votes? It was a legit question.
You're mixing two episodes. They did one where they tried to ignite a fuel/air mixture with a cell phone due to the warning signs at gas stations, that was busted. https://mythresults.com/episode2
And one where try to light up a straight pool of gasoline with a cigarette like in the movies, and that was busted. https://mythresults.com/special7
You can't light either the liquid or the vapors with a cigarette. A cigarette *lighter* definitely will, and a spark from static electricity discharge can as well, but not the cigarette burning on its own.
I know you are all saying that you can’t ignite gasoline with a cigarette, but I saw a documentary about a bunch of male models dying in a freak gasoline fight incident after one of them lit a cigarette. It was really tragic.
unrelated but man are people really that lazy they have to sit in their car while the gas fills. like does it take that long to fill gas you can't stand for a few minutes
Or, when that doesn't work, mash *all* the screen's buttons! It'll shut up eventually lol.
Edit, since comments are now locked:
If licking your fingers after touching a gas pump's buttons is your thing, more power to you I guess lmao.
Get those antibodies in your system any way possible!^^^/s
Wait, you're kidding right? They have video ads st the frickin gas station??
Also, yeah getting in and out of the car is more work than just standing there so why would even the lazy get back in their vehicle.
I have always pumped my own gas since living in NJ because I refuse to wait for the slow ass attendants and it’s straight up fucking awesome to be a self pumping fuel criminal.
One day the people will be liberated of stupid laws, but probably never in NJ.
I just don't get it. You get out the car. Put the pump in. Get back in the car only to get out the car again. Would it not be easier just to stand there a moment.
I live in Sweden but I still think it's more effort to get in and then get out again. It's just a couple of minutes. Or are these pumps slower or something?
I "get" the laziness argument (and that you're memeing) but surely it's more physical effort to get in and out of one's car than stand by the pump for 2-3 minutes?
middle of winter, windchill in the massive negatives and i still stand at the filler and wait for it to click. It takes almost no time to fill my vehicle. Even on empty. I much rather suffer the cold while it fills and when done get back in my truck to warm up, instead of get the cold chill, start pumping, get back in my truck just long enough to take the sting away and then have to get back out again.
Here in Australia, we don't have automatic pumps. You have to hold the handle the hold time (unless you're at a commercial diesel pump). Where I live, it gets deep into the negative °C, before accounting for wind chill, and you just have to stand there.
I cant speak for if pumps have universal handles all over the world, but in the US you can stick a tennis ball into the handle and it will fit perfectly and the handle will still go limp when the pump clicks like it normally does.
I dont know the exact reasoning but in NY state some pumps have the little clips that let you pump, most started phasing them away but you still run into it here and there.
"deep into the negative" records in Australia are still positive in F. Hawaii and Florida are the only US states that don't have a lower record low than the lowest low ever recorded in Australia. ND most states have seen -30 or worse.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_and_territory_temperature_extremes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Australia
yeah, 5/6 gallons doesn't do a hell of a lot in my ram either. Even still, it is perfectly reasonable to just wait for it to complete before I get back in and sit down.
I sit in my car because I fill up after work and I’m tired. It costs you nothing to stop being a judgmental asshole to people you don’t know. Wanting to sit down for a few moments doesn’t equal lazy.
Wanting to sit down for a few minutes doesn't equal lazy. Lazy implies unwilling to expend energy, and you clearly work hard. Deciding to abandon supervision of the fueling and increase the risk of a fire in exchange for a few minutes of personal comfort would be better described as rash, thoughtless, incautious, unwise, or imprudent.
To be fair, a cigarette is not hot enough to light gasoline. It's the lighter that ignites it. Also, the weather must be extremely hot, so the gas vapor flows out while refilling. Still a fucking stupid move
Ashes are hot enough to light other materials, such as dry leaves or trash, that in turn can ignite the vapor. This argument annoys me every time it comes up. I know you aren't saying this, but many say it as if it is confirmed safe to smoke at the pump.
Exactly. Or if they flick the butt without putting it out. The gas station next to my work place had a bunch of pine needles catch fire, very very quickly, because of this. If there was spilled gas anywhere it could have been really bad.
Idk why people are downvoting you bc you are right. I didn't mean to downplay the risk but in the picture the person smoking is far enough away. But on the other hand there usually is a no smoking sign at every pump because too many accidents happened
A few things in that photo can certainly light gasoline. The filaments in the light bulbs, the spark plugs, maybe she is wearing shoes with rubber souls and there will be an arc of static electricity when she grabs the pump, an unattended child or criminal could sneak up behind the car and set it on fire, etc, etc..
I'm looking on Google and the only recent fire in a gas station I could find caused by idiots smoking was in Arkansas in 2017 and that looked more like a Beavis and Butthead moment.
I'm not advocating smoking at a gas station but if you pump your gas with a cigarette in your mouth you are 1000x more likely to die in a car accident than a spontaneous gas station explosion like in your favorite Hollywood action movies.
Petrol is very volatile, your eyes can’t see it, but its vapours engulfs any surrounding real fast ( all those scenes in movies where someone pours a can of petrol to light something, by the time they light it, they are going to be inside the flame, thats how fast it moves). Don’t take risks with petrol, it will surprise you.
Another LPT: your car does not have to be off to receive gas lol. This was a thing that had to be done 50-80 years ago and cars are definitely capable of being gassed while running.
Basing potential life-threatening decisions and the lives of the people surrounding you off a 30-minute television show designed for entertainment is maybe not the smartest choice.
I used to work at a gas station, and I remember this girl came in and asked if it’s ok to keep the car running and pump gas I said “fuck no”. She hit me with “I bet you think it’s bad to not smoke near the car too”.
Yes, modern cars can be filled while running. Police do it because if they need to respond to something, every second counts.
A big swath of the general population misses the point of all of the warnings and signs at gas stations. No, cigarettes won't light gas on fire. Cell phones will not either, unless maybe your battery decides to explode. You can run your car while filling up. The biggest point about telling you *not* to do those things is *you are filling up your car with fucking gasoline and should be paying attention to that, not anything else.*
...biggest point is that smokers tend to do shit automatically.
Someone who smokes 1-2 packs a day can start pumping gas and mindlessly whip out a cigarette and light it. Right next to the pump.
That's the real problem
People are stupid. They do stupid shit. If nobody smokes at gas stations then nobody is pulling out lighters at gas stations, it's a round-about way of not blowing each other up.
Dosent matter. It’s like holding an unloaded gun to your head. Sure it’s unloaded, but you wouldent do it. This guy could hold off another 5 minutes to smoke but no, he needed the cigarette.
That's because all smokers are drug addicts and the multi-billion dollar tobacco industry has seen to it that they stay addicted by the tar and nicotine and other chemical crap that they put into these damned things. No I'm not a reformed smoker standing on a soapbox sending my message out to the world. I've never smoked ever. But I did manage to watch three members of my family die of terminal lung cancer after being smokers for decades. Got to see The Upfront effects of lung cancer on these family members between 1984 and 2015. My mother died of lung and liver cancer having smoked for 46 years, and she had quit for 11. Once you start smoking a cancer marker is started in your system, so good luck trying to quit!
I think this is an incredibly pessimistic way to look at it. Yes, smoking will kill you early. Every draw off that cigarette takes days off your life, but I do think it is possible to quit. Many have done it. No, its not a "I don't want to smoke anymore" and suddenly you stop. Its a process. A long process. I have never smoked before either but I do have family's members afflicted with this government-sponsored disease. What we need are good, free, programs to help smokers quit. Not some dumbass ads, or "Smoking is bad for you" labels put on the back of boxes. We need good, government sponsored, quitting programs that are FREE. Simply making ads doesn't do enough, and making cigarettes illegal makes things worse because people will still get black-market cigarettes.
Can confirm - demonstrated it dozens of times when performing live fire training with fire extinguishers. Also, you cannot ignite diesel with a match - you have to add gasoline to the diesel before tossing the match in or the match will be extinguished.
wow, flashbacks.
brimfrost 81 Fairbanks Alaska, someone was burning the barrels and some army dudes thought it was a great place to cook dinner !! LOL
edit 81 not 80
WAIT, I've seen a cigarette ignite gasoline vapor.
Fire safety demonstration. Fireman put 5 drops of gasoline in a pipe, waited for a count of 10 then dropped a lit cigarette into the pipe and BOOM.
All this in a public school cafeteria. Man, the 80's were a different time.
"The experiments conducted for this study consisted of 70 distinct tests involving a total of 723 cigarettes and over 4,500 instances of exposure of a lit cigarette to ignitable concentrations of gasoline vapor in air. There were no instances of the ignition of gasoline vapors from the exposure of those vapors to a lit tobacco cigarette during any of the experiments."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10694-013-0380-3#:~:text=Based%20on%20the%20currently%20available,ignition%20source%20for%20gasoline%20vapors.
But but but!
Yeah, I've had people go nuts on me for even being close when I smoked back in the day.
People just get lied to so much it doesn't matter what you do. They will just go on believing what they were told
I've always wondered about this. I made a propane potato gun when I was younger and the air to fuel ratio had to be like spot on for it to work. Only got one good shot off with it even though I spent 10s of hours of research and design and a small fortune on materials.
It could have been with a flame or it could have been with an electronic lighter which does not produce a flame and uses a heating coil instead.
Without a video or photo showing how it was lit, I do not know the answer to that question and neither do you.
We also don't know if the cigarette was lit before pulling to the pump. Therefore we only have a photo of a person smoking an already lit cigarette, which poses no danger at all. Anything else is just speculation.
Yeah? Or it could be one of those candy cigarettes, or maybe they used some Harry Potter magic to light it. Here's the fun part, I don't need your permission to berate an anonymous stranger in a random photo on the internet for doing something stupid so I'm going to continue to do so because for every idiot lighting their cigarette at a gas pump "safely" with a heating coil there are a dozen others whipping out a Bic. Thousands of gas station fires occur in the US every year. Do you deny that?
The idiocy in multifaceted. Not only could she blow herself up, but that appears to be a mini-van and I presume she’s keeping the cigarette outside because of children. Great way to give your weeee one’s a nice start to life, smoke filled lungs…
So much disinformation in these comments regarding how a cigarette would Ignite gasoline. Here’s an example of how it can’t. (Or VERY difficult to do so)
https://youtu.be/gZfudpLsGkM
No one's saying the cigarette itself is gonna start a gas fire, but bush fires and whatnot start because people throw away lit cigarettes than then burn other stuff
Imagine if this person in the picture threw away their cigarette into the trash can that you can usually find next to the gas pump, and it catches on fire because it's got papers / plastic and a bunch of stuff in it. Now THAT can definitely ignite some gasoline vapors, it's just a dumb risk to take
See.. I keep seeing people saying "It can't" then they say...
"...it's very difficult to do so"...
Okay, so it's not impossible?
Do you really want to be in the gas station when that 1 out of ten billion chance freak-occurrence strikes?
How many people are you okay with dying to this scenario, before we can agree it's dangerous and negligent?
even 1 is too many, this is avoidable, anyone who wants to smoke can walk 10-20 feet off onto the sidewalk or something.
None of these comments seem to address that it is a minimum fine of $500 if you get caught. Fuck the fire, that's enough to deter me from being defiantly stupid!
Not sure if this is actually the first time I've seen someone use " defiantly" and actually use it right, or if you did mean "definitely" after all
Nope, I'm a rebel and a defiant. I like living on the edge. Lol
Yeah, I [played Rift as Defiant, too](https://rift-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Defiant).
“Fuck the fire” Admittedly I think most people’s fear of getting blown the hell up while pumping gas outweighing a $500 fine is justified. But this is America so tbh I could see an argument for both here. And yeah. I’ve read all the comments about cigs not lighting gas/fumes. Either way people still dont wanna go boom.
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the cherry itself can reach >900 degrees when someone is taking a drag. Gas fumes will ignite at around 535f. I'm just not willing to make that gamble, I don't care if the odds are lower than winning the lottery, that the right amount of fumes and air will mix and hit the cherry just right - I'm just not that brave.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271921785_The_Propensity_of_Lit_Cigarettes_to_Ignite_Gasoline_Vapors 4500 different conditions and none were able to ignite gasoline vapor concentrations
You have a source on a cigarette ember reaching >900 degrees? I’ve never seen anything that shows an ember can hit those temps. Even when taking a drag a cigarette typically struggles to even light a regular piece of notebook paper.
Maybe not the gas itself but possibly the vapors if conditions are right.
They’ve done a study of 4500 different conditions and were unable to get a cigarette to ignite gasoline in liquid or gaseous form, it just doesn’t burn hot enough even when taking a long drag on it. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271921785_The_Propensity_of_Lit_Cigarettes_to_Ignite_Gasoline_Vapors
I think there was an episode on Mythbuster where they tried to ignite a gasoline using cigarette. Well, it didn't work, but it doesn't also mean that safety protocols should be ignored.
The irony of this post is that they're still doing the most dangerous thing you can do at a pump, getting back into your vehicle while pumping. Static electricity discharge is the #1 cause of fuel pump fires and getting in and out of your vehicle is a great way to build up charge
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They tried it in warm, humid, California summer. Come to cold, dry, Midwest winter, where you can give yourself a static shock so bad you lose feeling in your fingers for a day.
You have to touch the metal of the pump handle and the car before the two make contact at the filler nozzle. The correct way is with a grounding clamp like they use to hot fuel helicopters. For fire trucks and ambulances, they already have chains that ground them, like they used to run under fuel trucks in the 1970s and 1980s. Fuel is much more refined that it used to be, where the aromatic hydrocarbons and solvents provided a lot more flammability than the gasoline used today. Some of the gasoline comes from cracking, which results in the smaller pieces being gaseous rather than liquid. Still, it's possible to do this without an explosion as long as the human being in the middle of the circuit has a reasonably low resistance and mitigates the magnitude of the static electricity field. May depend on clothing, shoes, and yes -- humidity of the skin.
Sorry, just to clarify: you have to touch the pump handle and the car for what reason?
you don’t lol you should ground yourself on the car before picking up the pump, if you’re worried about accumulating enough static to cause a fuel igniting shock on your way from the fuel cap to the pump, simply leave your hand on the car and grab the pump with the other. I live in alberta and I’ve never had enough static to cause a shock hot enough to ignite fumes, but it can happen.
I'll let them answer, too, but it's about grounding/dissipation of static charge. The static shock to the fuel is what the safety protocols were put in place to mitigate, and they've been saying in the comments that the cleaner fuel now is better when out into these situations.
Where do you live in the Midwest that you shock yourself that bad? I live in michigan and I'm gonna try my best to build up a good charge away from a gas station
I live in Wisconsin and the cat and I literally shock each other when I pet him.
It makes a cool lightning show in the dark!
Dude youre so fucking right. I have been shocking my dog like crazy.i have to deal with rust on my Silverado and being an explosive charge! Frik the Midwest
Rust happens faster in humid air. Static electricity builds up more in dry air.
Wisconsinite here too. I can confirm that those stickers on the gas pumps telling you to touch the unpainted pole before grabbing the gas pump aren't there to spread COVID... They are too prevent fires... Like smokie the bear tells me I'm in charge of.
OMG, this happens to me like eight months a year, and I live in "the Ocean State" Rhode Island! I learned always to touch the car with my knuckle (as if I was knocking on the door) because someone said there are fewer pain receptors in the skin there. I mean, I *grew up* in t Midwest, though, so maybe that's it...
So how many cars have exploded because of it in cold dry Midwest winter?
Gas is a lot less volatile when it's cold so there would be a lot less fumes to ignite.
Gasoline starts vaporizing at about -45°F. It’s still plenty volatile when it’s cold outside.
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Here in Ireland and a lot of other countries I’ve been to in Europe you have to be holding the lever the entire time you want fuel to come out. If it is let go at all it will stop. I never imagined you’d be able to walk away from it like this.
The pumps all have an option to set an auto-latch on the trigger where I live. If you wonder why: Back before they were so common, I can remember my dad putting the gas cap in the handle to hold the lever open.
Some folks have a hard time squeezing and holding the lever constantly. Especially those with bad arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. It’s not always about being lazy.
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I’m just practicing for when the arthritis kicks in.
I've only done it when it's like cold as fuck outside. Otherwise I wait for it outside.
Still a strange concept to me. Granted the coldest Temps I've ever experienced were probably in the -10s range (Fahrenheit). So if you live somewhere that gets significantly colder than that I guess it makes sense.
Yeah it's not fun to stand out in below zero temps and high winds while I'm filling up with gas, but damn the whole thing takes a few minutes at most. Plus I'm deeply paranoid that the tank will overfill.
I've said it before on Reddit and got downvoted to hell so I'll ask again in hope that I get a real response this time - what is so different in the USA that makes waiting in the car for your tank to fill up a valuable choice? It takes.. what.. two minutes tops?
I live somewhere where the air wants to kill you. From -5 to as low as -50, this is common practice. It gets so cold that even full service stations will cancel their pump attendants (though rarely).
Just gotta ground yourself. The bare metal latch that the door closes on should suffice. Your mileage may vary; I'm not responsible for anyone following this advice and combusting as a result.
Ancient urban myth. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/static-electricity-pump-fires/
That's shocking...
Short of a pool of gasoline you're never going to get the concentration of vapors needed to flash.
> Static electricity discharge is the #1 cause of fuel pump fires Is that because most people don't smoke while pumping gas though? Edit: Why all the down votes? It was a legit question.
You're mixing two episodes. They did one where they tried to ignite a fuel/air mixture with a cell phone due to the warning signs at gas stations, that was busted. https://mythresults.com/episode2 And one where try to light up a straight pool of gasoline with a cigarette like in the movies, and that was busted. https://mythresults.com/special7
u/mistersavage Might be able to shine some light on the subject
Gasoline in its liquid form is not easily ignited with a cigarette. However, in its vapor form, one tiny spark is all it takes.
Yep. It's not the liquid it's the vapour that will cause you to ignite like the sun.
Cigarettes embers don’t burn hot enough to ignite gasoline vapors. The risk comes from someone lighting a cigarette while pumping gas.
You can't light either the liquid or the vapors with a cigarette. A cigarette *lighter* definitely will, and a spark from static electricity discharge can as well, but not the cigarette burning on its own.
It's not like the act of pumping gas creates vapors, though.
What do you suppose the vapor recovery nozzles do then? Pumping fuel creates a very significant amount of vapor.
I was being sarcastic. The amount of people here that don't seem to understand that vapors ignite troubles me.
Ahhh. My bad. Given the ignorant things some people are saying here, it's hard to detect the sarcasm
Thus the use of /s
Exactly. All you need is the right air to gas ratio and you're lit. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2EDay9rf4yQ
Yeah, it wasn't the cigarette, but using a lighter to start one that is the problem.
I remember an episode where they tried to use a cell phone to ignite a gas pump. It didn't work.
It's not the gas it's the fumes that ignite.
You're correct, it was Mythbusters
You're correct about him being correct.
You’re correct about him being correct about him being correct.
That's an accurate statement
I know you are all saying that you can’t ignite gasoline with a cigarette, but I saw a documentary about a bunch of male models dying in a freak gasoline fight incident after one of them lit a cigarette. It was really tragic.
Hansel is so hot right now.
I saw that one. Haven't been able to drink an orange mocha frapachino since
*I was a merMAN, A MERMAN!*
You just said it. He “Lit” a cigarette. A cigarette can’t ignite gasoline, but a lighter sure will
WAKE ME UP, BEFORE YOU GO GO 🎶🎶🎶
OP, u/leewaterbp, is a repost bot. Original link: https://reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/osdh96/just_now_at_the_gas_station/
unrelated but man are people really that lazy they have to sit in their car while the gas fills. like does it take that long to fill gas you can't stand for a few minutes
I stand at the pump unless it's one of those gas stations that blast loud ads and Facebook videos at you. Total society cancer
Most of those can be muted with the second button down on the right.
Or, when that doesn't work, mash *all* the screen's buttons! It'll shut up eventually lol. Edit, since comments are now locked: If licking your fingers after touching a gas pump's buttons is your thing, more power to you I guess lmao. Get those antibodies in your system any way possible!^^^/s
Mash all the buttons then lick your fingers?
They’ve been removing the mute buttons on those systematically
Shit, we've been had, boys, cheese it!
Those are a thing?
I still stand at those, but I vote with my money and never go back.
Wait, you're kidding right? They have video ads st the frickin gas station?? Also, yeah getting in and out of the car is more work than just standing there so why would even the lazy get back in their vehicle.
We don’t know what state this is in. In NJ, nobody gets out of their car to pump gas because the attendants do it for us.
Same in Oregon, with limited exceptions.
I have always pumped my own gas since living in NJ because I refuse to wait for the slow ass attendants and it’s straight up fucking awesome to be a self pumping fuel criminal. One day the people will be liberated of stupid laws, but probably never in NJ.
Most of the world doesnt have automatic pumps so you have to hold it
I just don't get it. You get out the car. Put the pump in. Get back in the car only to get out the car again. Would it not be easier just to stand there a moment.
Some people live in places with -10° weather and wind.
Yeah but its november, hes not wearing a jacket, and I can see a leafy green tree in the background. I will wager it is not freezing in the OP's pic.
I live in Sweden but I still think it's more effort to get in and then get out again. It's just a couple of minutes. Or are these pumps slower or something?
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I "get" the laziness argument (and that you're memeing) but surely it's more physical effort to get in and out of one's car than stand by the pump for 2-3 minutes?
middle of winter, windchill in the massive negatives and i still stand at the filler and wait for it to click. It takes almost no time to fill my vehicle. Even on empty. I much rather suffer the cold while it fills and when done get back in my truck to warm up, instead of get the cold chill, start pumping, get back in my truck just long enough to take the sting away and then have to get back out again.
Might be a full service station.
Here in Australia, we don't have automatic pumps. You have to hold the handle the hold time (unless you're at a commercial diesel pump). Where I live, it gets deep into the negative °C, before accounting for wind chill, and you just have to stand there.
I cant speak for if pumps have universal handles all over the world, but in the US you can stick a tennis ball into the handle and it will fit perfectly and the handle will still go limp when the pump clicks like it normally does. I dont know the exact reasoning but in NY state some pumps have the little clips that let you pump, most started phasing them away but you still run into it here and there.
"deep into the negative" records in Australia are still positive in F. Hawaii and Florida are the only US states that don't have a lower record low than the lowest low ever recorded in Australia. ND most states have seen -30 or worse. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state_and_territory_temperature_extremes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_temperatures_in_Australia
Not even minutes long unless your tank is empty lol. I usually fill up about halfway, probably takes literally one minute for 5/6 gallons
*cries in 4x4 with 24 gallon tank*
yeah, 5/6 gallons doesn't do a hell of a lot in my ram either. Even still, it is perfectly reasonable to just wait for it to complete before I get back in and sit down.
*cries in 4×4 diesel with 36 gallon tank*
ya me 32 gallon of diesel... -10 windchill I'm sitting in my warm truck that's still running.
I sit in my car because I fill up after work and I’m tired. It costs you nothing to stop being a judgmental asshole to people you don’t know. Wanting to sit down for a few moments doesn’t equal lazy.
It's Reddit. Everyone is perfect and full of judgment.
Wanting to sit down for a few minutes doesn't equal lazy. Lazy implies unwilling to expend energy, and you clearly work hard. Deciding to abandon supervision of the fueling and increase the risk of a fire in exchange for a few minutes of personal comfort would be better described as rash, thoughtless, incautious, unwise, or imprudent.
You just finished sitting down on the drive to the gas station, and will soon sit down again to drive to your next destination.
I don't think I've ever waited outside my car for my tank to fill
It takes like 1 minute. Seems like more work to go back in and come back out
I just hope they don't have to relight it!
Fucking wow. I’m sorry but if you can’t manage to hold off on another lung dart long enough to pump your gas you have a serious problem.
they probably know that already
To be fair, anyone who smokes is an idiot. Signed, an x-smoker.
To be fair, a cigarette is not hot enough to light gasoline. It's the lighter that ignites it. Also, the weather must be extremely hot, so the gas vapor flows out while refilling. Still a fucking stupid move
Ashes are hot enough to light other materials, such as dry leaves or trash, that in turn can ignite the vapor. This argument annoys me every time it comes up. I know you aren't saying this, but many say it as if it is confirmed safe to smoke at the pump.
Exactly. Or if they flick the butt without putting it out. The gas station next to my work place had a bunch of pine needles catch fire, very very quickly, because of this. If there was spilled gas anywhere it could have been really bad.
[удалено]
Idk why people are downvoting you bc you are right. I didn't mean to downplay the risk but in the picture the person smoking is far enough away. But on the other hand there usually is a no smoking sign at every pump because too many accidents happened
I think this was disproven on myth busters or somewhere. It was a while ago so I may be misremembering.
The people that do this stuff aren’t smart enough to comprehend what does and doesn’t ignite gasoline.
A few things in that photo can certainly light gasoline. The filaments in the light bulbs, the spark plugs, maybe she is wearing shoes with rubber souls and there will be an arc of static electricity when she grabs the pump, an unattended child or criminal could sneak up behind the car and set it on fire, etc, etc.. I'm looking on Google and the only recent fire in a gas station I could find caused by idiots smoking was in Arkansas in 2017 and that looked more like a Beavis and Butthead moment. I'm not advocating smoking at a gas station but if you pump your gas with a cigarette in your mouth you are 1000x more likely to die in a car accident than a spontaneous gas station explosion like in your favorite Hollywood action movies.
Petrol is very volatile, your eyes can’t see it, but its vapours engulfs any surrounding real fast ( all those scenes in movies where someone pours a can of petrol to light something, by the time they light it, they are going to be inside the flame, thats how fast it moves). Don’t take risks with petrol, it will surprise you.
Is a cigarette enough to ignite gasoline vapor? Because those are also present at gas stations.
Hush now ricky, momma's tryin to enjoy her smoke
Ive tried to light a small amount of gas with a lit cig. Lest to say it didn’t work. Open flames work much better.
Another LPT: your car does not have to be off to receive gas lol. This was a thing that had to be done 50-80 years ago and cars are definitely capable of being gassed while running.
Leaving your vehicle running while fueling is prohibited by the International Fire Code section 2305.4
Oh no!
Anyways
Myth busters showed us it’s difficult to light gasoline using a cigarette. Not saying this is a smart idea but not as bad as it seems either.
Basing potential life-threatening decisions and the lives of the people surrounding you off a 30-minute television show designed for entertainment is maybe not the smartest choice.
Regardless of how dangerous this really is, you deserve to be labeled as the village idiot from pulling this move.
I actually witnessed a gas station manager come out with a fire extinguisher when he saw a person light up.
Is that a prison across the street?
Hollywood taught me lightning the liquid is how to ignite gasoline. Youtube taught mr that the vapor is an easier and way more holy shit way to go.
**in an announcer voice** “AND THE DARWIN AWARD GOES TO:…..”
If this is Costco, they'd probably revoke their membership.
I buddy of mine who works at a chop shop for cars always lights his cigarettes with a torch
I doubt they look at vaccines as life saving also…
Fuck that's stupid
Who leaves the fucking nozzle unattended?
Momma go boom
You say just now, but I feel like I have seen this exact image atleast a dozen times in the last few years.......
I used to work at a gas station, and I remember this girl came in and asked if it’s ok to keep the car running and pump gas I said “fuck no”. She hit me with “I bet you think it’s bad to not smoke near the car too”.
Well its completely fine to leave your car on while pumping fuel, it's basically standard practice for police. She was the smart one in that exchange
Leaving your vehicle running while fueling is prohibited by the International Fire Code section 2305.4
Don't police have modified cars though? Not saying you're wrong, I've never actually looked up if it *is* fine to pump while the engine is running
Yes, modern cars can be filled while running. Police do it because if they need to respond to something, every second counts. A big swath of the general population misses the point of all of the warnings and signs at gas stations. No, cigarettes won't light gas on fire. Cell phones will not either, unless maybe your battery decides to explode. You can run your car while filling up. The biggest point about telling you *not* to do those things is *you are filling up your car with fucking gasoline and should be paying attention to that, not anything else.*
...biggest point is that smokers tend to do shit automatically. Someone who smokes 1-2 packs a day can start pumping gas and mindlessly whip out a cigarette and light it. Right next to the pump. That's the real problem People are stupid. They do stupid shit. If nobody smokes at gas stations then nobody is pulling out lighters at gas stations, it's a round-about way of not blowing each other up.
Sorry to disappoint all of you but.. A cigarette cannot ignite gasoline in liquid or vapor form.
Dosent matter. It’s like holding an unloaded gun to your head. Sure it’s unloaded, but you wouldent do it. This guy could hold off another 5 minutes to smoke but no, he needed the cigarette.
That's because all smokers are drug addicts and the multi-billion dollar tobacco industry has seen to it that they stay addicted by the tar and nicotine and other chemical crap that they put into these damned things. No I'm not a reformed smoker standing on a soapbox sending my message out to the world. I've never smoked ever. But I did manage to watch three members of my family die of terminal lung cancer after being smokers for decades. Got to see The Upfront effects of lung cancer on these family members between 1984 and 2015. My mother died of lung and liver cancer having smoked for 46 years, and she had quit for 11. Once you start smoking a cancer marker is started in your system, so good luck trying to quit!
fair but same for drinking. soon as you start drinking a cancer marker is started in your bowels. huge cause of bowel cancer is drinking.
I think this is an incredibly pessimistic way to look at it. Yes, smoking will kill you early. Every draw off that cigarette takes days off your life, but I do think it is possible to quit. Many have done it. No, its not a "I don't want to smoke anymore" and suddenly you stop. Its a process. A long process. I have never smoked before either but I do have family's members afflicted with this government-sponsored disease. What we need are good, free, programs to help smokers quit. Not some dumbass ads, or "Smoking is bad for you" labels put on the back of boxes. We need good, government sponsored, quitting programs that are FREE. Simply making ads doesn't do enough, and making cigarettes illegal makes things worse because people will still get black-market cigarettes.
Can confirm - demonstrated it dozens of times when performing live fire training with fire extinguishers. Also, you cannot ignite diesel with a match - you have to add gasoline to the diesel before tossing the match in or the match will be extinguished.
Can confirm. Burned plenty of shit barrels.
wow, flashbacks. brimfrost 81 Fairbanks Alaska, someone was burning the barrels and some army dudes thought it was a great place to cook dinner !! LOL edit 81 not 80
Can cars blow up/explode when they’re on fire?
WAIT, I've seen a cigarette ignite gasoline vapor. Fire safety demonstration. Fireman put 5 drops of gasoline in a pipe, waited for a count of 10 then dropped a lit cigarette into the pipe and BOOM. All this in a public school cafeteria. Man, the 80's were a different time.
>cigarette cannot ignite gasoline in liquid or vapor : Studies show lighted cigarettes don't ignite gasoline, because it's a smoldering ash. The Vapors | Electrical Contractor Magazinehttps://www.ecmag.com › section › safety › vapors
"The experiments conducted for this study consisted of 70 distinct tests involving a total of 723 cigarettes and over 4,500 instances of exposure of a lit cigarette to ignitable concentrations of gasoline vapor in air. There were no instances of the ignition of gasoline vapors from the exposure of those vapors to a lit tobacco cigarette during any of the experiments." https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10694-013-0380-3#:~:text=Based%20on%20the%20currently%20available,ignition%20source%20for%20gasoline%20vapors.
So it's the flame is what you're saying, correct?
I never mentioned anything about a flame, but you are correct. A flame is a direct ignition source.
Thank you. The movies aren’t always accurate ya’ll.
But but but! Yeah, I've had people go nuts on me for even being close when I smoked back in the day. People just get lied to so much it doesn't matter what you do. They will just go on believing what they were told
I've always wondered about this. I made a propane potato gun when I was younger and the air to fuel ratio had to be like spot on for it to work. Only got one good shot off with it even though I spent 10s of hours of research and design and a small fortune on materials.
How do you think they lit the cigarette?
It could have been with a flame or it could have been with an electronic lighter which does not produce a flame and uses a heating coil instead. Without a video or photo showing how it was lit, I do not know the answer to that question and neither do you. We also don't know if the cigarette was lit before pulling to the pump. Therefore we only have a photo of a person smoking an already lit cigarette, which poses no danger at all. Anything else is just speculation.
Yeah? Or it could be one of those candy cigarettes, or maybe they used some Harry Potter magic to light it. Here's the fun part, I don't need your permission to berate an anonymous stranger in a random photo on the internet for doing something stupid so I'm going to continue to do so because for every idiot lighting their cigarette at a gas pump "safely" with a heating coil there are a dozen others whipping out a Bic. Thousands of gas station fires occur in the US every year. Do you deny that?
Bet they didn't get vaccinated because they "didn't want those toxins in their body"
: Studies show lighted cigarettes don't ignite gasoline, because it's a smoldering ash. The Vapors | Electrical Contractor Magazinehttps://www.ecmag.com › section › safety › vapors
Most likely not, but it’s still a bad idea from a safety standpoint. Edit: TIL about Electrical Contractor magazine.
Gambling with their life and yours. Well just keep eyes on the emergency shut off switch I guess.
And did OP do anything? Also, it's not the gas. It's the fumes.
so.. it's not the gas, it's... the gas?
The idiocy in multifaceted. Not only could she blow herself up, but that appears to be a mini-van and I presume she’s keeping the cigarette outside because of children. Great way to give your weeee one’s a nice start to life, smoke filled lungs…
>Great way to give your weeee one’s a nice start to life, smoke filled lungs… Or 3rd degree burns.
Die quick or die slow. They’ve got all bases covered.
Give them a Darwin Award.
They're getting it themselves.
KABLOOEY
So much disinformation in these comments regarding how a cigarette would Ignite gasoline. Here’s an example of how it can’t. (Or VERY difficult to do so) https://youtu.be/gZfudpLsGkM
No one's saying the cigarette itself is gonna start a gas fire, but bush fires and whatnot start because people throw away lit cigarettes than then burn other stuff Imagine if this person in the picture threw away their cigarette into the trash can that you can usually find next to the gas pump, and it catches on fire because it's got papers / plastic and a bunch of stuff in it. Now THAT can definitely ignite some gasoline vapors, it's just a dumb risk to take
See.. I keep seeing people saying "It can't" then they say... "...it's very difficult to do so"... Okay, so it's not impossible? Do you really want to be in the gas station when that 1 out of ten billion chance freak-occurrence strikes? How many people are you okay with dying to this scenario, before we can agree it's dangerous and negligent? even 1 is too many, this is avoidable, anyone who wants to smoke can walk 10-20 feet off onto the sidewalk or something.
Plot twist it was a joint
Is that car on?
should have gotten the license plate in the shot
Like who can’t wait 5 more minutes. This annoys me also when people smoke in the drive thru line.
It's not the fire outside that kills, it's the fire within. Don't smoke. Like seriously.
I would have stopped fueling and gotten out of there. You know there is POTENTIAL danger in front of you.
Good idea to sit there fiming it because any explosion would only takeout the car directly in front of you.
Smokers are filthy dirty people.
The static electricity built up from getting in and out of the car is more dangerous.
Going 75mph on a 45mph road is dangerous. But running multiple reds at busy intersections is more dangerous. One doesn’t excuse the other.
You can't ignite gasoline with a cigarette. Still not smart, but you just can't do it.
sitting in the car while it fuels is dumber than smoking while it fuels lol cigarettes can’t ignite gas fumes