This is the second time I have pulled into a gas station and the gas attendant is smoking a cigarette, WHILE HE IS PUMPING MY GAS!
Now granted, these last two times have been at at 11:30 at night, BUT STILL. Now I'm a big dummy when it comes to science, physics and all that other crap, BUT somebody please tell me this is an unsafe thing to do. When there are no cars they walk about 6 feet away from the pumps to smoke their cigs, but still This freaks me out. The attendant walks over to my car puts the gas pump in my tank, walks away, then comes back, still smoking his cigarette. Has this ever happend to any of you?? Am I just being paranoid, or what?? What are my risks of dying? What are the risks that the station and me will blow up because some young High School PUNK is smoking a cigarette, while pumping gas! Again this only happends late at night, but lately its happening to me all the time! I guess I should stop getting gas late at night!

"somebody please tell me this is an unsafe thing to do."

Jet fuel fumes in an empty tank brought down a 747. Gasoline is by far easier to ignite and burns faster when ignited. You decide.

(I'd dump that bucket of windshield washer solution on him.)

Well guys, If you no longer see my postings on PDX Radio It will probably be because me and the YUGO blew up because some High School Kid ignited a fire by smoking a cigarette, while pumping my gas!

Don't go back. And call during the day and report that.

Kid needs to lose his job and do some serious thinking.

I thought that the economy was such that even a high school kid couldn't find work at the local gas stations.

Sounds like the station at 39th and Belmont. LOL.

I'll second Missing's comment. The manager would want to know.

I'm not sure what the World Trade Federation has to do with anything though.

> Now I'm a big dummy when it comes to science, physics and all that other crap, BUT somebody
> please tell me this is an unsafe thing to do.

Even "The Lawnmower Man" knew that it was unsafe to smoke while pumping gas!!!

Given that a fairly specific fuel/air ratio is required for gas fumes to ignite, it's pretty unlikely that a cigarette would cause a fire/explosion.

That said, it's still a stupid and illegal thing to do.

This is highly unsafe. It's true that the gas, flowing is in a fairly contained area. Given the air mix, there is a low chance of just fumes igniting.

Grant you that.

However, gas spilled, drops, etc.. all can ignite quickly and easily, and it only takes a small spark.

What if the wind comes up, blows the cherry off the fag, and it hits near the nozzle?

Ugly, that's what.

Also, anybody not willing to just take the risks and act accordingly, does not really need to be handling the fuel.

The idea is to do it in the safest way possible, not the least safe way possible. We engineer the fuel handling systems to be robust and that cuts the risk significantly to the point where the moron can probably smoke with lower risk than usual, but...

it's still risky. Nobody should depend on those things when there is no reason to.

It's selfish and foolish.

Call 'em in man. Maybe the kid will wise up. Might save a life! You never know.

Nice Randy!

I'll remember that one when I next get called on WTF!?!

kskd sez: "However, gas spilled, drops, etc.. all can ignite quickly and easily"

Lets not forget Justin was driving a Yugo, a vehicle that leaked fluids when brand new.

Yeah, that's kind of funny isn't it.

I knew a guy, who talked up his new, really cheap ass Yugo, until he came to work one day with the door in the cab! It literally fell off the car.

tal said
Sounds like the station at 39th and Belmont. LOL.



BINGO! You're EXACTLY RIGHT! I live right by that area!

"Sounds like the station at 39th and Belmont."

As featured in The Oregonian

It wasn't just at 39th and Belmont where I have seen workers smoke, infact there is one station out on 185th in Hillsboro that is NOTORIOUS for having the late night gas attendants smoke cigarettes while pumping your gas! Its the late night workers that are doing it. Lack of supervision and a low IQ is why these dopes at the gas station continue to do it.
But I guess I'm a dope myself, Since I continue to go back to the same gas station and let the dopey attendants continue to smoke while pumping my gas.

World Taekwondo Federation

"Where's the fire?" I guess this one does fit the thread.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I've always had this morbid curiosity with flatulence and fire. Remember the scene in "Dumb and Dumber" where Jim Carry light a match, and than Farts? Suddenly it ignited into a ball of flame. I wonder if that could happen with someone smoking a cigarette? Can a fart ignite a fire? (sorry to be so crude, but I'm just very curious. Is your flatulence flamable?

It absolutely is!

In late grade school, a group of us decided to bust this myth. Let's just say somebody went hairless for a while. It's pretty dangerous really.

(and thank god, we don't have video)

When the scientific method fails, there is always the empirical one.

LOL! Holy Crap, that is too funny! Its a good think you guys are still here to talk about the experience.

MythBusters!

Here is the answer right here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRoYoExRMnU&feature=related

If only we had that on KPTV back then...

No protective gear was used. One friend, who will remain nameless (and almost ended up not being a friend anymore, but we worked on him) and is just full of it (literally), assumed the position over a lit candle... and he got ignition on the very first and last ever try!

He did get favors out of that for YEARS though. Every time it was not going to go his way, that came up and of course, we said, "sure man, that was brutally funny".

Mistakes made:

heat rises

(we were too squeamish to try it with the gas rising. Nobody wanted to hold the lighter, so we employed coercion and watched the show!)

gas will pass through clothing

(we wanted the max chance of ignition)

failure to shave it

(obvious and smelly --nobody like the smell of burnt hair)

poor ventilation.

(fear of parents stopping the whole thing)

Hey, everybody is a kid once. Most of us make it too!

Gas fumes are FAR more dangerous than liquid gas by itself. The fumes are highly explosive,and flammable.
Granted,as was mentioned,it takes a certain mix of air/fuel to ignite,and the chances of that happening in open air are pretty low.

Liquid gasoline is a slightly different animal.
I have put burning cigarettes out in a small cup of gas before.
Go ahead,try it. (but do be careful,just incase! -I've never personally had it catch fire though.)

Something as small as a tiny spark from static-electricity can set off the fumes though,if they are the proper fuel/air ratio.

Either way,I wouldn't smoke while refueling.

It will go out, but you've got to be quick, or the vapors, heavier than air, will ignite. If that happens, it's a fire ball.

Had a physics teacher do that for one of his in-class demos. Got the lecture about smoking and some physics and drama all at the same time!

Probably would not be allowed these days.

"Probably would not be allowed these days."

Heh. My science teacher poured some mercury out of a bottle into our hands for us to handle!

That small asprin-sized bottle weighed as much as a brick!

I head that it is more dangerous to have your cell phone on and talking on your cell phone than smoking a cigarette. Im not sure of the science behind it, but talking on your phone while you're getting gas is dangerous! Go figure

"talking on your phone while you're getting gas is dangerous!"

Talking on you phone when you're behind someone COULD be dangerous due to the gas factor. KSKD might have matches too.

Probably...

Yeah, we had the Mercury thing too. That conveys the idea of density perfectly. Oh well, we lived through it.

The talking on your phone bit, while driving, has to do with how much of our attention is required to converse. We are invested in that, and our multi-tasking slows down to the point where our responses are no better than, and often worse than, a drunk drivers responses.

Normally, these small gaps in perception get filled in by the brain, leaving us with what we think is a continuous stream of information. I'e also read there is some prediction going on as well, with the brain filling in details, based on low level anticipation of what is expected to happen.

As those gaps become wider, all of that works to our disadvantage in that we think we have control, but really don't have it at a level in line with our daily expectations. Getting really old does the same thing!

Someone talking to you in the car, intently, has a similar effect.

For some reason, cell conversations are always more intent. Probably the limited bandwidth and strong encoding demand more attention than required for normal meat-space conversations do.

Having driven with both the hand held and blue tooth, I can say the best combo is the blue tooth, or one of those speaker phone rigs. It's still bad, depending on how much you invest in the conversation, but not as bad as holding the phone is.

The cellphone gas station thing is a myth.
http://www.snopes.com/autos/hazards/gasvapor.asp