another contender for the Darwin Awards 2010

[fido]

and another reason to give up smoking - if you are in the habit of stealing petrol from overturned tankers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/03/230-di...

Grauniad said:

..
He said that the driver survived the accident, and that the initial spill was ignited by the cigarette of a man trying to salvage some of the fuel in a tin can.
..

Edited by fido on Sunday 4th July 15:59

[The real Apache]

Not so funny for the hundreds of dead and injured though eh, the scale of this disaster is appalling

[Jasandjules]

I actually heard on the news in passing that 200 people were killed by a tanker lorry overturning, and I thought they must have been mistaken, then later on I heard that the people killed were trying to steal the fuel.........

What a tragedy.

[7mike]

"....overturned as it was trying to overtake a bus on a dirt road through the village....."

Puts things into perspective for me when I read all the threads moaning about driving standards in this country.

[teapea]

Christ, that's bad.
Really not a good idea though, if a fuel lorry overturns and there's fuel all over the shop, you get as far away as possible!

[Pesty]

This hapens more often that you would think, I recal quite a few incidents like this. Usualy they put holes in over land pipelines. sombody turns up with a fag. Boom.

[El Guapo]

Pesty said:

This hapens more often that you would think, I recal quite a few incidents like this. Usualy they put holes in over land pipelines. sombody turns up with a fag. Boom.

I think there was something similar in Nigeria some years back involving a sabotaged petrol pipeline. Dozens of people wading around, waist-deep in petrol trying to fill buckets and jerry cans and then some genius pitched up with a fag on...

[MX7]

I didn't think a cigarette could ignite petrol?

[maser_spyder]

MX7 said:

I didn't think a cigarette could ignite petrol?

I think from this story it's pretty obvious that's not correct.

Very sad indeed.

[MX7]

maser_spyder said:

MX7 said:

I didn't think a cigarette could ignite petrol?

I think from this story it's pretty obvious that's not correct.

Very sad indeed.

To find out whether this was possible, he and colleagues experimented. They dropped burning cigarettes into trays of petrol. They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.

[maser_spyder]

MX7 said:

maser_spyder said:

MX7 said:

I didn't think a cigarette could ignite petrol?

I think from this story it's pretty obvious that's not correct.

Very sad indeed.

To find out whether this was possible, he and colleagues experimented. They dropped burning cigarettes into trays of petrol. They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.

Not really the type of thread for willy waving or scientific debate.

[MX7]

maser_spyder said:

MX7 said:

maser_spyder said:

MX7 said:

I didn't think a cigarette could ignite petrol?

I think from this story it's pretty obvious that's not correct.

Very sad indeed.

To find out whether this was possible, he and colleagues experimented. They dropped burning cigarettes into trays of petrol. They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.

Not really the type of thread for willy waving or scientific debate.

But it's ok for Darwin Award jokes? Fine.

[mybrainhurts]

maser_spyder said:

MX7 said:

maser_spyder said:

MX7 said:

I didn't think a cigarette could ignite petrol?

I think from this story it's pretty obvious that's not correct.

Very sad indeed.

To find out whether this was possible, he and colleagues experimented. They dropped burning cigarettes into trays of petrol. They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.

Not really the type of thread for willy waving or scientific debate.

Why not..?

Knocks the story stone dead.

So, what caused the fire..?

[maser_spyder]

mybrainhurts said:

maser_spyder said:

MX7 said:

maser_spyder said:

MX7 said:

I didn't think a cigarette could ignite petrol?

I think from this story it's pretty obvious that's not correct.

Very sad indeed.

To find out whether this was possible, he and colleagues experimented. They dropped burning cigarettes into trays of petrol. They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.

Not really the type of thread for willy waving or scientific debate.

Why not..?

Knocks the story stone dead.

So, what caused the fire..?

Probably lighting a cigarette, not the cigarette itself.

It's pretty irrelevant compared to the outcome.

I've travelled in developing countries, there's generally a significantly lower perceived level of 'risk', coupled with the fact that life is, generally, cheap. It's a pretty miserable existence, hence a few litres of petrol being worth the risk in pinching.

[Jasandjules]

MX7 said:

To find out whether this was possible, he and colleagues experimented. They dropped burning cigarettes into trays of petrol. They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.

IIRC it's the fumes which ignite. So if someone was near the lorry which was emptying but inside was storing up fumes, then they could detonate. It happened in the UK many years ago when a Lorry driver was filling up a Petrol station - as the lorry was nearly empty he lit up, and the fumes in the tanker he was driving detonated and took out the whole station......

[BOR]

Maybe it was a mobile phone that caused it.

[MX7]

Jasandjules said:

MX7 said:

To find out whether this was possible, he and colleagues experimented. They dropped burning cigarettes into trays of petrol. They sprayed a fine mist of petrol at a lighted cigarette. They even used a vacuum device to produce the higher temperature (900-950C) of a cigarette being sucked. In more than 2,000 attempts the petrol did not ignite.

IIRC it's the fumes which ignite. So if someone was near the lorry which was emptying but inside was storing up fumes, then they could detonate. It happened in the UK many years ago when a Lorry driver was filling up a Petrol station - as the lorry was nearly empty he lit up, and the fumes in the tanker he was driving detonated and took out the whole station......

Yup, a naked flame will, but a cigarette probably won't. Not that I'd want to try it.