So, it’s a bad day. You’re in a hurry. Your car is running out of gas, and you’re late for a meeting. You stop at the gas station. While it’s still pumping, you get back into your car to call the office and tell them you’ll be a little late. Then, you get back out of the car, still on the phone, door open, and reach for the nozzle with your free hand. It doesn’t even seem like you touch it before the flames shoot up.
For a brief moment, you are engulfed. Fortunately, the attendant is able to put out the fire pretty easily. You are unhurt, but you find yourself covered in water and powdery fire extinguisher stuff. You miss your meeting. You’re still pretty scared and kind of embarrassed too. But, at least they let you have a free tank of gas after the whole ordeal. You drive away never having noticed the sign that warns against using your cellphone while pumping gas.
Has something like this really happened before? Do cellphones really cause fires at gas stations?
Yes, this type of thing has happened quite a few times before. Yes, many cellphone companies as well as many oil companies and gas stations do warn against using cellphones while pumping gas. But, no, it is probably fiction that the fire could have been caused by the cellphone.
According to the FCC, the Petroleum Equipment Institute, and various myth-busting sources, there has never been a single documented case of a cellphone causing a spark that ignited a fire at a gas station. In fact, no one even seems to have been able to successfully start such a fire in a test or a trial, even when they were trying. But the fires are real, and often static electricity (not electronics) is the culprit.
The Petroleum Equipment Institute has a campaign to make people aware of the danger of gas station fires caused by static electricity. They offer three definitive rules for safe re-fueling. The first two rules are obvious, turn off your engine, and don’t smoke. The third is less so: Never re-enter your vehicle while still pumping gas. Many fires have actually been started by people who sat in their cars during re-fueling. When they got back out and touched the nozzles, they caused sparks and ignited gas vapors. (Incidentally, most of these fires have involved women, because, apparently, women frequently get back into their cars while refueling, while men typically do not.)
So, if you absolutely must get back into your car while re-fueling, then touch the metal of your car door first before touching the gas nozzle. This will drain the static electricity from your body. Do you ever get a big shock in the winter when you close your car door? I do. Sometimes it hurts; I have to touch the door with my keys instead. If I can generate that kind of spark, then I’ll bet a fire really could ignite under the right conditions.
The institute does also recommend that you refrain from using a cellphone while pumping gas; although, that warning certainly isn’t at the top of their list. Maybe gas stations should have clear warnings against sitting in vehicles instead of talking on cellphones.
