On Sat, Jul 9, 2011 at 10:38 AM, Rod Goke <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Although the danger of igniting a gasoline pump fire with a cell phone has > been greatly exaggerated in Internet rumors, the danger of starting such > fires with electrical sparks is quite real, and, by far, the most common > cause of dangerous sparks near gasoline vapors is static electricity. > The girl in the white sweater started refueling then got back in the car then went back to the fuel nozzle. The sweater was undoubtedly synthetic material. Rubbing it across the car seat electrostatically charged the sweater. When she started to walk away from the nozzle again there was a spark which set off the fumes. Almost all of us have experienced shocks when getting out of a car in the winter wearing synthetic sweaters, jackets, etc. I have shirt that I had to retire because it more resembled a thunderstorm with near constant crackling and popping no matter what I was doing--just sitting there scratching. In the dark it shot sparks when I moved my arms. --Ediger
