Protecting Yourself While at the Pump

Friends are warning friends all over the Internet to dock their cell phones or risk becoming a fireball at the gas pump. Yet there has never been one recorded incident of a cell phone causing a fire at a gas station. Those warnings would be far more useful if they admonished friends to protect themselves against static electricity, which has ignited at least 150 fires at gas pumps according to the American Petroleum Institute. Just this month in Albany, Georgia, the Associated Press reported that a hair stylist was pumping gas into her car when her hair burst into flames. Her husband, Camilla firefighter Lt. Bill Marshall said the fire was probably caused by static electricity from his wife's hair rubbing against her clothes.

The Culprit
Static electricity may occur when a person filling their tank leaves the nozzle, gets back in their vehicle and rubs against the seats. When they return to the pump after refueling is complete, the built up static may discharge at the fill point, causing a brief flash fire with gasoline refueling vapors. To guard against this hazard, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) offers gas pump safety tips:

Warnings
Do not get back in the car while refueling. If you must get back in the car, always touch a metal part of the vehicle such as the door or other metal surface away from the gas fill point before returning to the refueling area. Touching metal reduces the build up of static electricity and minimizes the likelihood of fire. Women should be extremely careful since 75 percent of the victims of gas pump static electricity fires are women who have gone back into their cars to tend to children, or to get their purse.


Do not smoke, light matches or lighters while refueling.


Turn off the engine during refueling.