Static electricity Petrol Station fires

[DjPete]

Why isn't this publicised more?
Bloody hell..

[Kendo]

Yep, saw one tonight on that Surveillance Oz show. Someone filling up a BBQ gas bottle that wasn't on the ground. One spark of static electricity and they BBQ'd their car and the servo.

And people think those "no mobile phone" signs at servos are unecessary.

[ohzone]

I wonder if the static is coming from peoples clothing rather than mobile phones, anytime I have got a "zap" it has always come from clothing carpet or some other man made product but never a mobile

---

Quote:
Between 1993 and 2004, there were 243 reported

incidents of fires breaking out at petrol stations

around the world. None of these incidents occurred

as a result of mobile phones igniting.

According to industry reports, the notion of mobile

phones exploding or igniting at petrol stations was

triggered by a hoax email. Perpetuated by the rise of

the Internet, warnings about the dangers of mobile

phones were in global circulation by the late 1990's.

https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/...c_fire.pdf

[DjPete]

Yep I saw it on that same Surveillance Show.
By the look of it it has happened but prob pretty rare.
Still makes you take heed a bit more.
If my bloody mobile rings and I'm filling up I WON'T be picking it up thats for sure

[Huls]

Mythbusters did a show on mobile phones and static electricity causing fires at service stations. They couldn't ignite with the phone and concluded it was a myth.

[Batfink]

The conclusion they came up with is that you have to have a combination of the exact mixture of vapour and air and right intensity of spark. But yes I remember that in there booth they found it impossible to cause it with a mobile phone.
However they did cause it with a manufacturer spark lol

You would have more chance of friction from the plastic phone static release than the phone operations. As an ex servo worker, when servos were full service, we all learn to glide hands along the roof of the car before touching anywhere near nozzle.

[Dale]

[Batfink]

Dael, when I was young and dumb I had a party trick of putting out a smoke in a can of petrol.... never once got burned LOL

[BikerBoy]

The mobile phone myth 'was' true......but not with current phones.

It is the old "brick phones" and the batteries in them that were an issue.

[Aussie Steve]

I would suggest it is a build up of static electricity from her sliding in and out of the car seat.

I used to often get a shock when I slid out of a Magna and then touched the car...an actual spark jumped from my finger tip to the car body a few times. This was because I did not hold onto the car frame whilst getting out.

[Belzybob]

If you are ever sitting at an airport where you can see the refueller at work, his first action is to reel out a wire from the bowser and attach it to the aircraft. This does two things; one it removes the electrical potential difference between the two vehicles and secondly it discharges the static that builds up as the fuel flows.

In the case of a normal servo, the moment that you bring the nozzle close to the fuel pipe is the issue, a spark may occur and if the vapour mix is right it might cause a fire.

The mobile phone thing is pure fantasy. The RF power is insufficient to do anything and its only the EXTREMELY unlikely chance that you might strike your phone with a mallet and cause the battery terminals to arc that there is any risk.

When using radios in a dangerous atmosphere they must be marked as 'intrinsically safe'. However that is nothing again to do with the RF, but again the minute chance that the terminals might arc.

[kozzo]

Seen a million videos of this 90% are women..why always leave the pump and go back in the car..why???