Yet another shop horror story from gas tank filling overflow and fire

[Woodwreck]

Copied from WoodWeb

"A Cautionary Tale: Shop Fire Destroys Building and Burns Owner
This thread will teach you the hard lessons learned by a shop owner whose buildings caught fire — without having to go through it yourself. October 4, 2011"

Seehttp://woodweb.com/knowledge_base/A_..._Building.html

A very well written article of a massive lost and near death, that apparently could have been avoided with simple nozzle gas fill overflow prevention (required by state and fed. codes).

[stevem]

a good reason NOT to store flammables in a garage or shop of anykind and to fill machines when cold, OUTSIDE

[scooby074]

Too bad he got hurt, but there is something weird about that story.. Clogged INTERNAL filter and he somehow managed to dump 3 gallons into it? There are no "internal" filters that can cause a problem like this in my experience.

My honda has a screen on the fill neck, but there is no way you could clog it completely, and even if you did, and somehow managed to overflow the tank, there is a molded trough to direct fuel to the safe side.

Ive filled a TON of hot machines, and spilled lots of gas on the hot exhaust. All that happens is a sizzle, as the exhaust isnt hot enough to ignite the fuel....

Being a genset, I bet the machine was running (cant have the wife go without power) and an electrical spark or a spark from the exhaust ignited the overflowed gasoline either from a clogged filter (questionable) or more likely operator error. Filling a running machine is really bad practice.

[Rod Sheridan]

Sorry to hear about the injuries and the loss of shop and equipment.

Safety is one of those things, it's all statistical, just because you've done a risky thing 5,000 times in a row without incident, doesn't mean you've got the risk under control. Each time is just as risky.

Hope he heals well............Rod.

[billh]

..., just because you've done a risky thing 5,000 times in a row without incident, doesn't mean you've got the risk under control. Each time is just as risky.

... Rod.

That is worth framing and putting on the shop wall, Rod.

billh

[RobW near Burford]

As a general practise with lawn and garden equipment if I can't touch the muffler then the machine is too hot to refuel.
Bob

[All_Alone]

Quite a story indeed. (I agree about the filter thing - weird)

Where I have my camp up north, a guy lost half his house, garage, shop, woodshed, a couple of vehicles, boats, and an ATV.

It was speculated that a cordless power tool charger overcharged/short cicruited and caught fire about 3:00 am. Because there is no local gas station, folks store lots of gas in their garages. Once the fire hit the 20 litre plastic tanks (there was 4 of them) it was good night Irene., There wasn't much the volunteer fire department could save. It was kind of sickening to drive by the house (quite nice) and see the damage. He didn't have much in the way of insurance either.

At least there is a somewhat decent ending:

Good news update. My insurance paid off with a very fair amount to replace both the building and contents I lost in this fireGood news update. My insurance paid off with a very fair amount to replace both the building and contents I lost in this fire