Saw Something Scary
 

At a backyard get together my friend was getting ready to grill the burgers. Walked up to the grill with a Bud Lite in one hand and a cigarette his mouth, looking over his shoulder talking away, paying no attention. He whipped to cover off the gas grill and WHOOMP!! Big ball of fire. Friend was blown clear off the deck. He's OK, except he has no eyebrows and some of his hair is real curly.
Apparently someone had left the gas on and the grill cover had filled with propane.
There is a lesson here. I think it is, "Don't drink Bud Lite."

Dayumm!! Lucky? Guy!!

Several years ago a friend and I were about to do a flight in a small piston helicopter. During his preflight he unscrews the fuel tank cap and eyeballs the quantity in the tank (100 octane Avgas). He happened to have a cigarette between his lips. Nothing happened but that was the first and last time he did that.

I've seen an idiot holding a petrol pump handle filling his car and in the SAME hand had a lit cigarette between his fingers. I was running (away) and shouting at him...

..but nothing happened - no fireball that I was expecting

a cigarette his mouth

This phrase is right up there with "hold my beer" - nothing good ever follows. For instance, you wouldn't read with a cigarette his mouth, he pushed the button and started his cold-fusion reactor.

As the saying goes "Friends don't let friends drink Bud Light" Dangerous stuff.

I had a minor version of that myself. I'd left the gas on at the BBQ then turned the cylinder, then I hit the igniter on the Weber. The lid popped open and my hand stunk of burnt hair, but otherwise ok.

I am not sure about the temperature required for ignition of propane, but I have been told a smoldering cigarette is not usually hot enough to ignite a gasoline vapor/air mixture. Now if one were really drawing a long puff, maybe. From what I understand, most smoker caused gas station fires are caused by people lighting up.

I don't have to worry about that. I went out to use the BBQ on Friday and it was still on. Someone in the house last used it 2-3 weeks prior. One thing about being hard plumbed to the natural gas is that it doesn't run out of fuel like a propane tank.

Delete

My brother in law left the gas tap on his BBQ, put it away in the porch(to protect the BBQ from the inevitable English rain.Woke up next morning in a house that stank of gas. THEY WERE LUCKY to wake up I guess.

bud light and a cigarette, all I can think is I hope that guy brushes his teeth every few hours for the sake of the people around him.

Static electricity from getting in / out of the car while fueling is a much more common form of ignition.

The ONLY words proper to utter when one has a lit cigarette are:

"Good tires, but definitely not great tires"

Road and track. Great great picture.

If he was forced to extinguish the flames with beer, he had the right brand on hand.

One time I was playing golf and we saw a gas grill on fire at a house next to the tee box. It had a leak in a line and about a 12" flame was shooting out. We yelled at the guy about his grill and he casually walked over smoking a cigarette and beat the flame out with a towel and went back to what he was doing. We got the hell out of there.

Everyone here knows that if you throw a lit cigarette into a puddle of gasoline the cigarette will go out every time.
RIGHT?

Darwin at work... Almost