Gasoline Fire Potential Is Good Reason to
"Put the Gas Cans on the Ground"

BOZEMAN - - You are filling gas cans as they sit on a liner in the back of your pickup while your 3-year-old waits in the front car seat. Suddenly, the back of the truck is in flames, though there was no flame nearby. Desperate to get your child away from the flames, you pull out the liner bare-handed, tipping the gas cans, burning your hands and spreading the flames more.

Impossible?

Not only possible, but true. If you know someone who doesn't believe it, "just have them call me," says Max Hillberry, a Lolo dentist, who faced that situation in spring 1994.

Hillberry was lucky -- if you forget the spark that ignited the fire. His hands and forearms received only second degree burns. He is now fine, as is his son. The truck has been repainted. The gas station was closed for several weeks but now has new pumps.

The scene has been repeated several times in Montana in recent years, say fire officials, but it never needs to happen again. All people need to do is take the gas cans out of the back of their truck and put them on the ground before filling them.

"Ground" is the operative term.

Hillberry's fire started because the gasoline cans were not grounded. When the nozzle of the gas hose touched the side of the gas can, static electricity caused a spark that ignited gasoline vapors in the can. In this case, he had a plastic truck bed liner that prevented the harmless flow of static from hose, to can, to truck, to ground. The same thing could occur if the electrical grounding was prevented by the cans being on wood or rubber in the truck bed.

"Anything that insulates the cans from being grounded creates the potential for a spark under certain conditions," says Bill Lindstrom, Assistant Fire Marshall with the Missoula Rural Fire District. "I've had service station people tell me it can't happen, but Exxon and Chevron have taken steps to alert people now. Exxon has gone so far as to put warning decals on company-owned containers." A fire fighters' newsletter reported that there were 20 such fires at Texas gasoline service stations, says Lindstrom. Both metal and plastic gasoline cans have been involved.

There are a lot of reasons static electricity builds up, says Butch Weedon, director of Montana State University Extension Fire Training School. The simple friction of a car or truck driving down a road will build an electrical charge. Even a liquid flowing out of an opening creates some static. The faster the flow, the more likely to cause a static spark.

To have a fire start as it did with Hillberry you need gasoline vapors as well as a spark. That means that any time the weather is not too cold for vapor to form, you can have enough vapors to ignite. It doesn't have to be hot. Hillberry's accident occurred in April in Lolo, and Montana's warmest April could never be termed "hot."

People can buy special "safety" gasoline cans that won't spill even if knocked over. The cap is attached with spring tension. It can vent when it gets too hot, but the cap also snaps shut if the nozzle is pulled away. However, such safety gas cans are relatively expensive, says Weedon.

The easier and cheaper solution is to always put gas cans on the ground before filling them. Hillberry says he always puts the cans on the ground now. No exceptions.

"I also touch the side of the can to make sure there is no static," says Hillberry, adding that since his accident, many people have come up to him to relate scary sparks near gasoline cans, though few experiences were as harrowing as his.

So, next time you run out for some gas for the snow-blower or lawn mower, just put the cans on the ground.