# Putting out fire with gasoline? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-out-fire-with-gasoline/581540 "2011-05-11T17:28:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-out-fire-with-gasoline/581540/21 "2011-05-13T12:24:50Z")
> [@JustinC](#): > > Is anything added to gas to make it less combustible outside of an engine? I’ve seen people fill their tanks while smoking and/or talking on a cell and never have been caught in a fireball. Which was nice as I was sitting in the car being filled, during those times. [Cell phones are a non-issue.](http://www.exponent.com/files/Uploads/Documents/CellPhoneReport.pdf) Smoking usually isn’t a big deal because the cigarette is up near your face, and the vapors coming out of the tank (as you fill it with liquid gasoline) tend to trickle _down_ the side of your car to the ground - so you’re not likely to end up with a flammable mixture anywhere near the cigarette. Moreover, cigarettes often aren’t hot enough to ignite gasoline. What _can_ ignite gasoline fumes when filling your car is the discharge of static electricity. People who start the pump and then get back into the driver’s seat (often during winter to keep warm) and then get back out when done refueling are risking the creation of a spark when their hand touches the nozzle; that can be enough to light off the vapors that are present in that area. Note that the pumping of gasoline produces static eletricity, too. This is why [portable gas cans should always be placed on the ground when filling them,](http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/pdfs/hid2.pdf) to provide a path to ground that helps safely dissipate static electrical charge created during filling. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-out-fire-with-gasoline/581540/22 "2011-05-13T13:00:18Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Kari Byron: On tonight’s Mythbusters, we’re going to set Grant on fire and see if we can’t put him out with some gasoline. Please don’t try this at home, we’re what you call experts. That does sound like the kind of myth they’d test. If it counts as a myth. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-out-fire-with-gasoline/581540/23 "2011-05-13T13:27:13Z")
One of the games in my high school was to throw lit matches into your car’s gas tank to see if they would extinguish before they ignited. After a couple of guys blew up their cars, we stopped doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-out-fire-with-gasoline/581540/24 "2011-05-13T13:32:38Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > One of the games in my high school was to throw lit matches into your car’s gas tank to see if they would extinguish before they ignited. After **a couple** of guys blew up their cars, we stopped doing it. It… took more than one to convince you? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-out-fire-with-gasoline/581540/25 "2011-05-13T14:18:02Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > With the reply video “Where are my eyebrows?” Adam Savage: “Am I missing an eyebrow?” ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-out-fire-with-gasoline/581540/26 "2011-05-13T19:12:38Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > One of the games in my high school was to throw lit matches into your car’s gas tank to see if they would extinguish before they ignited. After a couple of guys blew up their cars, we stopped doing it. I call shenanigans. [Cars contain fuel pumps and wiring inside the fuel tanks - why don’t they blow up more often?](http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/EDL/projects/JetA/misconceptions.html) > [@](#): > > \*\*From the Explosion Dynamics Laboratory at Caltech \*\* > For this reason, the probability that a fuel tank containing liquid gasoline has a flammable vapor space is extremely small in most climates except in the artic regions. > > The in-tank fuel pumps in modern fuel-injected vehicles are designed to run submerged in fuel, as are the fuel pumps in aircraft, and the fuel circulates through the pump, including the sparking brush-commutator system. Unless the gasoline tank is almost completely emptied of fuel, this will not pose a hazard since there will be only fuel and not a fuel-air mixture within the pump. So in order for an in-tank fuel pump to pose an ignition hazard, the tank must be “run dry” under very cold conditions so that flammable vapor surrounds the commutator. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-out-fire-with-gasoline/581540.md?page=1)