Reply to "Pantera Fire"

Professor Jim, thank you for the Static Electricity theory. I've been wondering where the ignition source could have come from and now I know. I've seen metal strips attached to the ground in the pit lanes in Formula One, and they touch the bottom of the cars to provide a grounding souce to eliminate static electricity. People employed in the microelectronics industry wear a strap attached to their wrist to ground their bodies and prevent static electricity from causing failure of the tiny circuitry they are assembling.

So, from this, I learn that it's going to be nearly impossible to prevent static electricity from being a possible ignition source, unless we ground our cars and our bodies at the gas station.

Thus, the only thing we can do is to be aware that we need to keep fumes to a minimum in the fumes + static electricity = fire equation. Not over filling the gas tank and allowing spillage is the easiest thing to do, I suppose. And the ever present fire extinguisher, plus a cool head in a panic situation, is essential, since we're all vulnerable to fire.

Please continue to stick around and educate us Professor Jim, that's a cool thing.