Vehicle Refueling Fires

During the next four months people who refuel vehicles should be cautious about the potential for fires during refueling. Fires during vehicle refueling occur most frequently during the fall, winter, and early spring when cooler and dryer air promotes the generation of static electricity or static charges. We often experience a static electricity charged "shock" when touching another individual or one of our pets when walking around the house on carpeted floors.

Vehicle refueling static fires occur when a customer pulls into a gas station on a cold, dry day and the customer gets out of the car and goes to the pump, inserts the fueling nozzle, and latches the nozzle on automatic. To escape the cold they get back into the car. When the nozzle clicks off, the customer slides off the car seat and gets out of the car and walks the few steps to the gas tank. The person reaches for the nozzle and their statically-charged body discharges its accumulated voltage via a spark, which can result in a flash of flame and a fire as the vapors escaping from the nozzle or fuel tank are ignited. People have suffered burns, vehicles have been destroyed and service station dispensers and canopies have been destroyed.

Several factors continue to facilitate the risk of static fires:

• Increased use of synthetic clothing and upholstery materials such as polyesters that induce static charges.
• To meet the required mileage standards, manufacturers reduce vehicle weight by using more plastics and other insulating materials, thereby elevating the possibility of significant static charge generation on the occupants.
• Increase use of oxygenated fuels, especially gasoline and alcohol blends.
• Winter motor fuel Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) formulas that increase fuel volatility often with higher levels of pentane and butane.

Preventing a static fire at refueling is not difficult and there are several ways a person refueling their vehicle can avoid this from happening. When you're putting gas in your car you should not get back into the vehicle because the combination of moving in and out of the vehicle and clothing and upholstery material can generate static electricity. If you must get back in the car for some reason during the fueling process, you should always touch a metal part of the vehicle first, such as the door exterior, or some other metal surface away from the fill point when exiting the car and returning to the refueling area. This reduces the build-up of static electricity and minimizes the likelihood of a fire occurring.

The number of refueling fires is rare in relation to the number of vehicles that are refueled every day. In the unlikely event a static-caused fire occurs when refueling you should leave the nozzle in the fill pipe of the vehicle and move away from the vehicle. Tell the station attendant immediately so that all dispensing devices and pumps can be shut off with emergency controls. Motor fuel dispensers are required to have a shut-off and service stations are required to have a posted "emergency shut-down" button 25 to 100 feet from the dispenser. If the service station facility is unattended, use the emergency shutdown button to shut off the pump and use the emergency telephone or intercom to call for help.

Static fires also occur when putting gasoline into a container. Use only an approved portable container and place it on the ground when refueling to avoid a possible static electricity ignition of fuel vapors. Containers should never be filled while inside a vehicle or its trunk, or on the bed of a pickup truck (especially those with bed-liners) or the floor of the trailer.

Watch the video of an actual vehicle refueling fire incident on the Petroleum Equipment Institute web site at:
http://www.pei.org/Index.aspx?p=stop_static.

-- Sheldon Schall