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.

Flightty - this was taught in science when I was at school. We had to try to ignite little dishes of petrol/diesel to show the differences between the volatility of the two substances.

Even if you thoguht it was safe to mess with petrol IN your house, surely not with the cooker lit??

Stupid advice to start hoarding fuel, but unfortunately the poor woman in question was doing something very daft. :(

I think we know it was daft, Jaggy. It's the way some people seem to get tremendous satisfaction from stating that in the rudest, most cruel way possible that is making me angry.

Sorry, I was about 2 pages back when you said 'it's not taught at school'

It's alright. It wasn't taught at mine, not to me anyway.

I don't remember being taught anything very useful apart from how to speak French and German. Science was all fairly theoretical and pointless. I have never had recourse to want to see how much gas a peanut gives off in my entire life.

I was never taught at school or anywhere else that petrol was highly flammable. So how did I know that? Maybe I am Einstein after all.

Clearly.

It is perfectly possible to feel really really sorry for the woman, wish her well and regret her pain and, at the same time, recognise that it was a really foolish thing to do.
We all do stupid things we just mostly get away with it.
For it to be stupid does not mean that it is her fault or the governments fault or Francis Mauds fault.
It was an accident.

This bloody obsession we have that a bad thing happen so quick, who do we point at and blame?

Yes Francis Maud said a deeply stupid thing. But, like greenhairedmonster I never heard those comments until I heard and saw the onslaught of criticism and explanations of why you should not piss about with petrol. I think the implication that this poor woman is so dumb that she totally waived any common sense because of something Francis Maud said is far more offensive thsn the idea that she just assumed that she would be fine because although it was a bit risky she would be careful and bad things never happen to ordinary people.

It wasn't her fault. She did something stupid but everyone does. It wasn't Francis Mauds fault. He said something stupid but everyone does.

It was an accident which, had it happened two months ago would barely have even reported.
People looking for someone to blame, especially for petty political mileage, irritate me.

X-posted with a squillion people.

Of course the poor woman would have known that petrol is highly flammable. What she probably didn't know (because it wasn't taught when she was at school) is that the vapour is the danger, not the liquid.

Having a serious accident because you have done something you didn't realise was so dangerous is ignorance.

Persisting in criticising the person's judgement and refusing to accept that the accident was due to ignorance: that's stupidity!

If someone in government said "remember to check your fire alarm", and someone wanted to do it but couldn't reach. So they prop their ladder on the stairs in a really precarious manner and climb up. Ladder slips, they fall off and break their neck.

Who's fault is that? She wouldn't have been up their if the government hadn't told her to check her fire alarm.

I think I could have caused confusion about my own stance when I said I blamed the government, in an earlier post. I don't blame them for this woman's actions, not directly anyway.

I do however think it was really irresponsible of the government to suggest, or recommend that people store volatile fuel at home without giving appropriate guidelines for doing so. (yes, in the garage, whatever).

They were simultaneously implying that we had to act because of an imminent crisis (People read between the lines with an announcement like that.
People do act. The government knows this.) and neglecting to give official guidelines on what action that should be and how it should be implemented by the individual.

If you're going to worry people into doing something, you should be clear about what exactly they should do, and help them to know how to do it safely and most importantly here, what NOT to do in the process.

This is my argument. Yes the government fucked up too and everyone does. But the government is in a position where it must not fuck up, because if it does, things like this are FAR MORE LIKELY to happen.

I was also never taught that petrol vapour is highly flammable. Somehow I just knew. There is no doubt now. I AM Einstein.

Yes but the govt can't cover every eventuality. How would they have known this woman would do this? People have to use their common sense. But sadly sense is most certainly not common as this woman has vividly demonstrated.

Oh shall we just leave it.

Pagwatch good post

I hope she recovers and is soon well but what she did was just pure stupidity.

Those of you that are saying 'who would know how to decant petrol safely' or how to store it safely, have you no common knowledge/sense?

You don't have to have a masters degree in science and flammables to know that petrol is flammable, nor do you need to use it everyday, you just know it surely.

You can't blame the govt either(for once) yes they did whip the country into hysteria and give out bad advice but they can't police every person and legislate for someone pouring out flammable liquids in her kitchen ffs. Regardless of the fact petrol is flammable it stinks and it isn't a nice smell to eat around

Petrol stinks. And spills easily. And it sticks to your hands & clothes in a minging film (this from a person who has a poor sense of smell). So why would you decant in your kitchen? Why wouldn't you do it right next to your car & leave the smelly containers outside, probably in the car? Why extract some from tank (into some sort of container) & then bring Container1 into the kitchen to pour into container2, near food which will absorb the odour & possibly taste of petrol? Leaving aside dangers, it just seems so weird.

One member of the govt said something arguably reckless which was very quickly retracted, the retraction & revised advice got acres more coverage than the original bad advice. I don't think govt. can take blame for this incident.

Oh my God - poor woman.

But how shocking that an adult would have no basic knowledge of safety around petrol. It was a monumentally dangerous activity.

Yes of course, why didn't I realise. She must have intended to burn herself! That's the only way to explain the utter stupidity - she knew what she was doing, and did it on purpose!

Give me strength.

It is an appalling accident and hopefully the poor woman will survive. her daughter too will be traumatised by witnessing what happened to her mother.

ragged
"Petrol stinks. And spills easily. And it sticks to your hands & clothes in a minging film (this from a person who has a poor sense of smell). So why would you decant in your kitchen? Why wouldn't you do it right next to your car & leave the smelly containers outside, probably in the car? Why extract some from tank (into some sort of container) & then bring Container1 into the kitchen to pour into container2, near food which will absorb the odour & possibly taste of petrol? Leaving aside dangers, it just seems so weird."

That's probably what people are finding the strangest part of this. It is slightly easier to understand a smoker mindlessly lighting up near a flammable source as it is often a habit which you don't consciously think about. In this incident the lady in question, presumably, had to go through a number of actions outside any normal routine/habit before making the decision to transfer the petrol into the kitchen. It just seems stranger as I would have thought it would normally be automatic to keep such a foul smelling substance out of the kitchen/food area even if not considering the dangers.

If I ever did something so stupid I would be livid with my family if they let the story get on the news. I would not want my stupidity broadcast to the nation.

I think with 40% burns she has more to worry about, biscuitnibbler, however I suspect she is sedated so heavily she doesn't know anything that is going on, if in fact she is even conscious.

Ironically many of the posts saying how stupid she was are really stupid posts.

Has anyone pointed out that many gardeners have a motor mower or strimmer and would therefore have a jerrycan of petrol in the garage (can't think how else they would fill it unless you took it to the petrol station in the boot, or rode it there!).

We have always had a motor mower and always had petrol in the garage. Why everyone is fussing about it I do not know though horrible for poor lady who was burned.

Because a jerrycan holds more petrol than you are supposed to store in that way, josie.

We have a 5l petrol container in our shed for our lawnmower. We only ever use it outdoors. I would never dream of bringing it into the house.