Woman badly burned decanting petrol

[Blu]

here

Horrific.

It doesn't sound ilke a 'jerrycan' incident, but I hope there are no more like it over the coming weeks. Safer to stay put than store petrol or be pouring, syphoning or decanting it.

I think we all forget that people on this planet have a vast range of intellectual abilities.And we do forget what we learn at school. And many people in this country now do not have a british education, or indeed much of an education at all.
Slightly off the subject, I hate travelling around with a full tank of petrol in case I have an accident. I dont know if that is ridiculous or not.

The brainiac static clip is fantastic - well worth a watch, and will put you off shell suits...

The cynic in me wonders what the government has been up to this week after deliberately causing this massive fuel panic - what are they hoping we/the media won't notice?

Fenton - apparantly in Canada there are regular occurrences of people using their lighters to un-freeze petrol caps or the locks on petrol caps.

Yes, Blu, I knew about that.

You kind of only really know what you're taught, or what you experience and for those who have not been taught this at school or by a parent and those who have not experienced such things, (I mean petrol, not the sambuca thing) it is not going to be something they have all the necessary knowledge about to do it safely.

That's all I'm saying. Or does everyone think that everyone in this country who drives, or whose family drives a vehicle, is clever and educated?

Amillionyears, you're safer with a full tank than with an empty one. There needs to be the correct mix of air and petrol vapour to ignite, and with a full tank you don't have enough air.

Amillionyears....precisely.

That's why the empty tanks of oil tankers are incredibly dangerous - they do something with foam so that the oil left as it is empyied doesn't turn to highly inflammable vapour.

I mean, a case in point. I went to a grammar school, with an IQ of 140+, did all the sciences till year 10, went on to work in a workshop where I ground valves out of engines and stripped bikes among other things.

I can easily see myself doing something like this woman did. If the govt had just said, you know, in an ad or something (because most people have a telly or a radio) 'do not take fuel into your house, only store it outdoors, make sure you don't get anywhere near an open flame, because the fumes are flammable' that would have been something towards a safer execution of their advice. But did they? no.

You don't need to be Brain of Britain to understand that it's dangerous to muck about with petrol, especially in open containers in a kitchen with the cooker on. Good grief!

I realise that but it does help if someone TELLS you.

Poor woman

The government has handled this really, really badly.

I live in a flat, we have a lock-up in our stairwell accessible to everyone. It only takes one idiot to stick in in there with the garden tools, tins of psi t, bits of wood and we are in serious trouble.

Thanks for the help on fuel tank v half empty tank.
Columbia999, but the woman who got burnt didnt do it to herself on purpose.
So she, and presumably hundreds of others did need some help to understand or reminders of the dangers.

And I didn't know about vapour and petrol. But neither have I queued for petrol nor do I intend to stockpile it.

"does everyone think that everyone in this country who drives, or whose family drives a vehicle, is clever and educated"

No... obviously by the number of people who end up in Casualty each year because they've set light to themselves with BBQ lighter-fuel or fireworks, commonsense is not something to be taken for granted. BBQ lighter fuel is clearly marked as 'flammable'. Petrol stations are festooned with signs saying 'flammable' and 'do not smoke' etc. Fireworks ditto. If a member of the government had stood up this week and said 'remember folks, petrol is highly flammable' there would have been a collective eye-roll....

I'm not surprised something like this has happened, and I do feel sorry for that poor woman and her family. It must have been horrific and frightening, not to mention excruciatingly painful.

However access to petroleum is tightly controlled for a very good reason. It's a highly flammable substance and needs to be stored properly.

It may be 'common sense' to a lot of posters on this thread but as this awful incident illustrates, it isn't to everyone. You cannot assume that people know these things, you have to tell them.

Also, with regard to storing it in your shed (should you have one of course)...what if you did something without thinking and your shed caught fire? Fire spreads incredibly quickly.

Bearing this in mind, there's no way in hell anyone should be storing it on the balcony of a flat. You might think, well I know how to store it, don't put it near a heat source what a load of nanny state nonsense blah de blah but all it takes is one mistake/lapse in judgement.

That's why people shouldn't be storing petrol.

I think most people know that Cogito. But in PRACTISE it's not always easy to remember or understand fully the rules.

No one's told me so far how far away you have to be from a flame, to be safe...so I guess none of us actually knows, in detail?

@ Flightty.... if you struggle to remember something that basic, may I kindly suggest that you remove any sharp knives or electrial appliances from your immediate vicinity and think twice before tying your own shoelaces or crossing the street....

No I mean remember the rules. Not that petrol is flammable.

What are the rules anyway? How far away from a heat source is it Ok to decant petrol?

How about... 'do it outside'.... ????

They are told it's plastered all over the petrol station where you buy the stuff!

Flightty is making a good point, and I'm not sure why she is being mocked.

Everyone congratulating themselves on their own sensibleness in not waving petrol round near a cooker is missing the point.

The government shouldn't have encouraged people to stockpile petrol, because it's not safe when it isn't stored properly.

Many people do not have 'outside' or garages or a shed.

I will not keep anything of that nature in our flat, but many people do.

the government did not encourage anyone to 'stockpile' petrol

And Yy flipinada

and given the multiple warnings when you buy the stuff, you would think that maybe people would want to look up the law on how to store it before merrily stacking it next to their boiler or similar.