Why you don't smoke near petrol.

[Charlie D]

This just goes to show that you don't need "Wet" petrol to cause a fire.

I guess the invisible fumes stay at ground level waiting for a chance to ignite.

Could easily happen in a home garage with a small leak.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/37249644/idiot-lights-cigarette-petrol-station-sparking-inferno/

 

[Steve-B]

🙃 That article proves how Darwin sometimes works in hysterical ways! 

[Cew]

22 hours ago, Charlie D said:

guess the invisible fumes stay at ground level waiting for a chance to ignite

One of the reasons pits are frowned upon.

[john.r.davies]

Charlie, I am NOT paying to reject the cookies on a Sun website!

 

[RobH]

It shows the photos OK for me John, without needing to do anything.  Perhaps you need a pop-up blocker on your device. 

[Charlie D]

10 hours ago, john.r.davies said:

Charlie, I am NOT paying to reject the cookies on a Sun website!

Hello John,

Try the "Daily Mail" instead:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15268429/Shocking-moment-friends-cheat-death-one-lights-cigarette-throws-match-floor-petrol-station.html

It also happens in "The Guardian", but in a less dramatic way:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2012/jun/26/petrol-station-fire-cigarette-lighter-video

 

Edited November 9, 2025 by Charlie D

[harrytr5]

Can not asses it as they want you to sign up.

So given up

H

[Charlie D]

47 minutes ago, harrytr5 said:

Can not asses it as they want you to sign up.

Odd how some people get straight in and others can't.

Have you tried the Daily Mail version?:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15268429/Shocking-moment-friends-cheat-death-one-lights-cigarette-throws-match-floor-petrol-station.html

[john.r.davies]

31 minutes ago, Charlie D said:

Odd how some people get straight in and others can't.

Have you tried the Daily Mail version?:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15268429/Shocking-moment-friends-cheat-death-one-lights-cigarette-throws-match-floor-petrol-station.html

No!    They also want me to subscribe to their daily toerag if I won't accept their cookies!   But the same video is freely available on YouTube (maybe I have accepted the YT cookies!)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-N0qxviAiio

I wonder if what ignited wasn't petrol fumes, but something out of the open manhole into which the tanker was delivering.   Could it have been natural gas?     The lorry was much smaller than the petrol tankers I see delivering at service stations, more suited to a compressed gas? 

But that is certainly another way to die if you smoke.

John

[Charlie D]

56 minutes ago, john.r.davies said:

 Could it have been natural gas? 

Good point, but natural gas is lighter than air (I think) so it would not be hanging about at ground level.

[trchris]

To think it was common when l started in the early 70 s for almost everyone in the workshop to smoke plenty of petrol , thinners and the like , changing jaguar fuel filters sitting in the boot with a lighted fag on the go and not a care in the world lucky not one incident health and safety would have had a fit. 

Chris

Fortunately l was a non smoker 

[RobH]

As you say Charlie- methane is lighter than air so it couldn't be that.  

Petrol vapour is heavier than air and will flow to lower-lying areas exactly as seen in the video.  The tanker was being discharged to a point a few feet away from the smoker  - it's difficult to make out but doesn't appear to be an above-ground  closed-pipe system as used here, so there could have been a lot of vapour being liberated.    Filling stations are usually closed off during deliveries for a good reason.      The pink area is the flame front just starting.     Note the car and motorbike parked right next to the discharge point . 

Edited November 12, 2025 by RobH

[stuart]

43 minutes ago, trchris said:

To think it was common when l started in the early 70 s for almost everyone in the workshop to smoke plenty of petrol , thinners and the like , changing jaguar fuel filters sitting in the boot with a lighted fag on the go and not a care in the world lucky not one incident health and safety would have had a fit. 

Chris

Fortunately l was a non smoker 

My old Guvnor back in the seventies when we used to spray synthetic and boil it up first always had the fag on the go and when the ash dropped in the paint he would just stir it in with the comment "That`ll give it a bit more body!"

Stuart.