A good friend of ours had what sounds like a freak accident with canned gasoline. It essentially "exploded" on him but did not combust. Fortunately he is okay but now I am concerned about safely storing gasoline.
We have newer gas cans but according to our friend's wife, so did he.
He stored them in his shed. Ours are in our garage (we have no shed).
She said the fire department said that you should not let the cans get less than half full (I assume this has to do with the presure building. But I've never heard anyting like this before. Plus when you depress the nozzle, doesn't that release the pressure?)
All I know is that I am now more confused than educated on the subject. I looked briefly on the internet for some answers but am not seeing anything that tells me why this happened to him, why it won't happen to me, and how to prevent it. Can anyone give me some solid advice?
Jo - I'm not sure if it is the way she tells the story or what because I am equally confused. It sounds like he went to fill the mower and the gasoline "splashed" him in the face, in the mouth, and in the eyes. When she called 911 I assume the fire department responded as well since gasoline was involved. I believe he was told that if he would have had his contacts in, he'd be blind today.
I am kind of confused as to what happened. If the pressure blew up the can then why was the fire department called?
I would think as the cans get older they probably can't take the pressure that builds up so it could explode when you pick it up.
Yeah when we open it the pressure is released, never a problem.
Could they have bought a cheap gas can or maybe one with a defect?
Huh. We have never had issues when we were storing gasoline...
I wonder if he put too much/too little of that junk (can't remember what it's called) you are supposed to mix into the gasoline to stabilize it for long term storage? Or maybe one of his cans had a leak or something...
We store gas in our shed. We have never had a problem. DH uses stabilizer so that if we don't use it up at the end of the season, there's time to use it in the car or snowblower or whatever. I think we have one metal and 3 plastic containers and have kept them this way for years. Every year DH puts the gas in the cars and then gets new and stabilizes it.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/32266.html
Not sure what PA's rules are, but this is what the NYSDEC says about personal gasoline storage.
Hope it is helpful.
