I worked with an engineering firm who was employed by lawyers to provide
the data to back up law suits over fires due to exploding hot water
heaters. They build a cement block house with a hot water tank closet.
The closet door had the usual 1-1/2 inch cut-off bottom for ventilation
for the gas hot water heater. This construct is found inn many homes. A
Camera was set up to record the room and a 3 pound coffee can with a
small amount of gasoline  was placed in the middle of the room.
Eventually, with evaporation. there would  be enough gasoline fumes in
the room that it would begin to seep under the door to the hot water
heater flame, and then BOOM! The fumes would ignitt, blowing the door
off the closet and sometimes off the building. And of course there was
the flash flame as well. All this was caught on tape and presented to
the jury. Pretty conclusive in all cases, and the legal firm
consistently won their case for the client.

Fuel fumes, particularly gasoline fumes are not to be taken lightly.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver

John Bange wrote:
>> Propane has a much higher risk factor than gasoline due to it being a
>> vapor
>> at ambient temps and its extremely wide flammability range. That is why
>> propane is restricted on almost all tunnels and some bridges.
>
>
> FWIW, gasoline is generally identically restricted WRT tunnels and
> bridges.
> For example the Chesepeake Bay bridge-tunnel limits their transport to
> 120gal for gasoline, 120lbs (141gal) for LPG. Not trying to downplay the
> danger of propane; on the contrary I think people need to understand how
> dangerous gasoline can be. Propane builds up to hazardous concentrations
> faster, but consequently it also dissipates faster. Gasoline is
> unlikely to
> achieve an explosive mixture at normal temperatures, but consequently it
> sits around as a fire hazard of comparable danger until cleaned up. When
> either vents/spills onto a hot engine, BOTH will be in gaseous form-- and
> gasoline the more volatile with an autoignition temperature of 536degF to
> propane's 874degF.
>
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"
>
>