Quote:
Originally Posted by Karl Wescott
A horror story from my days as a volunteer firefighter. A local rodder takes his nice, freshly finished, fiberglass (not our body) 1932 3 window out for a Sunday cruise. Splashes a little gas while filling the in trunk tank (not good). Comes home and parks the car in the shop overnight (less good). Next morning the car is reeking, so he decides to take the carpet out. Without airing it out (bad idea), while it is still in the shop (worse idea). Static electricity ignites the fumes. BOOM. Minor burns to the owner (LUCKY). We get called in on the second alarm. The butchers bill includes the 3 Window, the 5 stall shop, a tractor, a new special edition 2010 Mustang, one or two other cars, A custom built log house, and a couple acres of grass/forest.
|
Yowza, what a story! Static electricity is something that isn't on most of our minds, at least as much as it should be. Another good reason for me not driving antique cars in extremely cold weather (when static electric discharges are at their peak.) Parts of our house used to get so dry during deep winter that we could erroneously set off the fire alarm just by brushing up against the wall close to where it was mounted.
The closest I came to a gas tank catastrophe was many years ago when I was filling up my EDD at a convenience store. The customer before me was either extremely messy or had a leaky tank or filler, because there was gas all over the pavement. About that time, a dumb smoker walks right by the pump and flicks her lit cigarette on the ground...it lands about an inch from the spillage. She looked at me as if to say, "what's wrong with YOU?" as I frantically stomped the burning cigarette out with my foot.