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It is not the first time this has happened, I know of at least tow others, spanning almost 50 years.
One was when a guy I knew got home from work and entered his trailer house with a cigarette in his hand. There was a propane leak that he did not know about, and when the cigarette set off the propane it blew him right back out the door, and destroyed the trailer.
Another was when a guy had just got his propane tank filled, and had it in his Jeep Wagoneer. When he lit a cigar, the propane (again, just a little leak) exploded, destroying his Wagoneer.
Both of the guys survived.
I'm sure it will happen again.
But, that is why I don't carry propane cylinder or gas cans in a closed space. The vapors are heavier than air, and even just a 3/8 inch drain hole is better than nothing!
smoking around flammables has always been a dangerous proposition ...
Years ago while working on a semi-truck electrical system, I was bent over the batteries cleaning up the cable ends. It was a fairly confined space in the truck step to the cab and I had the batteries on a charger. The truck driver came over to see how the project was progressing, lit cigarette in hand. He reached out with that hand to lean on the battery bank. BOOM! I was blown out of the project by the exploding hydrogen gas. My glasses were found about 50' away; good thing I always wear them ... safety glasses. If I hadn't had them on that day, I'd have been blinded by the explosion. The trucker didn't even have the courtesy to say "sorry", what an a**hat ... let alone, he could have lost his truck to a fire.
a gas station/c-store at Eagle, CO, was blown up by a three-way refrigerator left on the "propane" position when it pulled into the station. Fumes from gassing up adjacent vehicles were ignited by the propane burner. The station was totaled.
Took months to tear down the fire damaged facility and rebuild.
a buddy's shop was burned down by a smoker. One of the techs was draining gasoline into a 5 gallon bucket so he could drop the tank. The fumes were ignited by a lit cigarette two stalls over. Torched the whole shop, they didn't get any of the cars out the door before the fire was overwhelming.
another friend's cabinet & furniture shop was burned down. He used a lot of highly flammable coatings which he sprayed onto the stuff he made. On a calm day, the fumes were ignited by a smoker in the adjacent shop in the building ... the fumes traveled through the places where the electrical wires and plumbing interconnected between the units. Took out a 5 unit shop building.
and so forth. I know personally of at least a dozen shops or businesses with flammables on site that were torched by a smoker. To this day when I smell cigarette smoke, my stomach churns ... especially in places where flammables are or can be located. You can't believe the number of folk who sit in their vehicles smoking a cigarette while in a gas station, or leave their lit cigarettes in the ashtray while they fuel their vehicles. While true that the odds of this causing a fire are small, you only need to happen to you once to understand the potential devastation and acquire a high respect for the danger.
Doesn't surprise me, when you gotta smoke, you gotta smoke.
I was in the Marine Corps, field artillery. In the field, I would go in a truck as an advance-party to start setting-up the next site for the guns. So we are crammed into the back of this truck full of ammo and gunpowder................and yes, the ciggy-freaks would light-up in the back of truck with all those explosives.
I'm surprised there wasn't more damage and that she is still alive. When one of those 20 pounders go off it is a big explosion.
Years ago I was picking up a tank of gas for a welder at the shop I worked at and there were photos on the wall explaining why they refuse to put a tank inside a car, trunk or enclosed space. Those cars were literally torn apart from the explosions.
Technically, the match or lighter caused the explosion, not the cigarette. Cigarettes burn at about 700 degrees which is not hot enough to ignite propane.
This reminds me of a friend in college who rode a little moped and the gas gauge didn't work so he told me he had to check the tank periodically. One day the moron did it in front of me and he used his cigarette lighter to see. I never ran faster in my life.
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