a petrol pump hit my car

[AntiThesis]

Check out the Mythbusters episode dealing with petrol stations... quite informative. Cellphones don't, cigarettes don't. Hell, I think they tried quite hard to get it going.

Be interested to see how this turns out - think the station is going to tell the OP to go away.

 

[JK8]

a cigarette will NOT ignite petrol or petrol fumes, it is not an open flame that is igniting vapours.

So if I throw petrol on the ground and throw a cigarette in it, nothing will happen?

If I had to pump petrol and pull on a cigarette it wont ignite?

As a smoker. sometimes you ash and the wind blows it on your hand it burns you...

 

[LancelotSA]

Check out the Mythbusters episode dealing with petrol stations... quite informative. Cellphones don't, cigarettes don't. Hell, I think they tried quite hard to get it going.

Be interested to see how this turns out - think the station is going to tell the OP to go away.

As stated above, Mythbusters or not (and they have been known to get things wrong), you can happily keep smoking near a petrol pump just make sure I, or no other innocent person, is near!

 

[AntiThesis]

Well yeah that is fair - I don't want to endanger you or anyone else on the offchance I am wrong. If you're wrong all that happens is we don't blow up... if I'm wrong, well bad things.

Besides, with the fuss people would cause it's not worth it unless you're deliberately trying to a) piss people off and b) prove a point.

 

[ToxicBunny]

So if I throw petrol on the ground and throw a cigarette in it, nothing will happen?

If I had to pump petrol and pull on a cigarette it wont ignite?

As a smoker. sometimes you ash and the wind blows it on your hand it burns you...

Yes, if you throw a lit cigarette into a pool of petrol the cigarette will go out.

And pulling on a cigarette around pumping petrol won't do anything.

The maths doesn't necessarily add up since petrol ignites at about 270C whereas a cigarette burns at about 700C.... but petrol will put a cigarette out.

 

[LancelotSA]

Yes, if you throw a lit cigarette into a pool of petrol the cigarette will go out.

And pulling on a cigarette around pumping petrol won't do anything.

The maths doesn't necessarily add up since petrol ignites at about 270C whereas a cigarette burns at about 700C.... but petrol will put a cigarette out.

I am not convinced about the point in bold!

But again as some of us concluded above this argument is ridiculous! Are you honestly going to risk watching someone next to you puff on their cigarette while standing next to their filling petrol tank? If it is a 1 in 1 million chance that something happens why should we take it when that addict could just wait 5 minutes before getting their fix!

 

[AntiThesis]

This article is quite a nice read for cigarettes vs petrol: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/feb/27/smoking.film

 

[Rosaudio]

Petrol > Cigarettes

 

[ToxicBunny]

That was exactly the article I read awhile ago..

Lancelot : I'm a smoker, but even knowing what I do, I don't smoke around petrol pumps... there is a chance my cigrette could light something else and that would be bad... plus they ask us nicely not to smoke, so its common courtesy to follow simple requests like that.

 

[LancelotSA]

This article is quite a nice read for cigarettes vs petrol: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/feb/27/smoking.film

Yip, I just read that and many others and was not going to, but now I will, post what one said at the bottom :

Disclaimer

I haven’t tested this one, I don’t intend to, and I suggest you don’t either. Experimenters stress that there are, obviously, circumstances in which a cigarette can start a petrol fire – but it can’t happen, they say, the way it’s shown in films. The experimental data seems clear – the theory less so. Your burning rebuttals and explosive explanations are awaited on the letters page.

 

[AntiThesis]

Yeah that's pretty much what we're saying - I could light a match and wave it around petrol pumps but I'm not going to because it's stupid. The world is full of the graves of people who thought they knew what was going on.

Other things could ignite, accidents could happen.

 

[LancelotSA]

Yeah that's pretty much what we're saying - I could light a match and wave it around petrol pumps but I'm not going to because it's stupid. The world is full of the graves of people who thought they knew what was going on.

Other things could ignite, accidents could happen.

...and yet even in conceding that you seem very reluctant to accept that given exactly the right freakish circumstances the actual petrol, or the fumes, could well ignite?!?

 

[flarkit]

Smokers tend to do their thing unconsciously, not paying attention. Whilst I'd be willing to accept that a lit cigarette can't set petrol or the fumes alight, I'd be far more afraid of some impatient driver lighting a cigarette up whilst waiting to refuel. Rather be safe and do not smoke near flammable materials, period

 

[JK8]

Petrol > Cigarettes

Static electricity > Petrol > Ciggies.... hmmmm

 

[Fazda]

My Lord!!

Is there a South African Chapter of the Darwin awards?....If not may I please start one off...beginning with the OP, and then adding a few of the following posters as well!

The OP should go and take some Lotto tickets NOW, as the chances of driving over a hose, ripping the bowser out of the ground and NOT causing some sort of spark leading to a fire must be against him!

At least award the guy some sort of stupidity prize!!

 

[AntiThesis]

...and yet even in conceding that you seem very reluctant to accept that given exactly the right freakish circumstances the actual petrol, or the fumes, could well ignite?!?

Well yes because the odds of such a set of circumstances occuring are pretty tiny. If something doesn't happen 2000 times in a row, the chances of it happening the 2001st are quite small.

I mean I could be standing at the pump watching when suddenly a bird is struck by lightning and, blazing strongly from the electricity, it plunges into my petrol tank, igniting the whole thing. But it probably won't happen.

 

[Fazda]

Oh dear...and still the stupidity continues....

 

[jphegers]

I think we are now talking about cigarettes and petrol fires and missing the point.This poor guy road over the hose and damaged his car now everyone is condemning him, every one knows it is not a nice feeling when one's car is damaged.he road over a hose, its a accident.you reverse out of your driveway, you know where your gate is but you scrape your car, its a accident?

 

[AntiThesis]

Yes but if I drive out of my driveway and scrape my car, I don't try get money out of either the people who built the walls or the guys who manufacture my car mirrors...

 

[Fazda]

I think we are now talking about cigarettes and petrol fires and missing the point.This poor guy road over the hose and damaged his car now everyone is condemning him, every one knows it is not a nice feeling when one's car is damaged.he road over a hose, its a accident.you reverse out of your driveway, you know where your gate is but you scrape your car, its a accident?

It may well have been an accident, but one of the stupidest ones I have ever heard of...and one that was incredibly easy to avoid, if he had been driving with one eye open!! then to try and blame the petrol attendant or the garage, simply compounds STUPID in my mind...sorry OP, but you opened yourself up to this one!

I have no sympathy at all on this count!!