How not to re-stoke the fire

[struggle]

http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/101208/new_295454443.shtml

A bright one for sure.

 

[karri0n]

A bright one for sure.

Who, the fire, or the guy? Seriously, how much gasoline do you need to be pouring to explode your entire house? did he just put the can in and close the doors?

 

[struggle]

It is surprising as to how much this actually happens in the sense of using gas to get a fire going. An old farmer (80s) just south of my town was burning a brush pile and pured gasoline on it and it started him on fire and sadly he died later from the burns he received.

It gasoline usually burns so fast that it really does little to start a fire such as wood compared to say used oil or diesel fuel. I guess some people use what ever they have on hand that is fast as opposed to doing it right the first time.

You can bet it was bright when that gas hit the embers. Wooosh

 

[burntime]

Itsw only cool if you see the mushroom cloud Sad that someone lost their life over it though.

 

[Corey]

A bright one for sure.

... , how much gasoline do you need to be pouring to explode your entire house? did he just put the can in and close the doors?

Not a lot, I suspect...One gallon of gas can move a 2 ton auto 20+ miles - so there is quite a bit of energy there. The article says "attempted to relight it by pouring gasoline into the stove." - Which I assume would be the worst case scenario...pouring gas onto glowing coals which would make for a huge cloud of vapor. The autoignition temp for gas is around 500F, so any little spark or if he struck a match or lighter....** WOOOF **

 

[BrotherBart]

Happened years ago with the husband of a woman my wife worked with. Guy got laid off on a Friday afternoon, came home and started drinking and decided to start a fire in the fireplace. Couldn't get it going to his depressed and intoxicated satisfaction so he threw some gasoline on it and burned the end off of a beautiful new home.

 

[Jags]

Hey Bro, hold my beer.....watch this sheet.

 

[cmonSTART]

I wonder how many times he did this successfully before it all blew up.

 

[staplebox]

Where is Clam Gulch located that a 1500 sq. ft. house and it's contents are only valued at 30k?

 

[cmonSTART]

Kenai Peninsula, Alaska.

 

[struggle]

Alaska from what I googled. I thought that price was strange as well but have never been there. I am guessing pretty run down.

 

[n3pro]

See that's the problem with cheap gas, you wouldn't do that with 5.00 a gallon gas, but under 2.00 that a different story. I remember in the teen years a few of us kids were having a camping type get together, well the adult left to get us some food around a bon fire. We started throwing a few rail road ties on. . . boy did they burn, the another kid got a bright idea to fill a soda can with gas and throw that on. Thank God we were far away and there was nothing much around! I never saw a 55 year old run so fast up hill! Needless to say our group was never invited back!

 

[kenny chaos]

Where is Clam Gulch located that a 1500 sq. ft. house and it's contents are only valued at 30k?

That's what I was wondering. My Lopi cost me almost that much!

 

[begreen]

Darwin Award winner for sure.

 

[dvellone]

I mentioned here a while back the neighbor who threw kero on the smoldering fire in his stove. His thinking was that gasoline explodes and kero doesn't. He found out the hard way that vaporized kero will blow your stove apart quite nicely.
Why is it that dry tinder + dry kindling + draft + a match is such a problem that folks will resort to explosives in the home?

 

[firefighterjake]

There was a kid (teen-ager I believe) who was severely burned here in Maine a year or so ago when he did this same thing . . . and then there is always the inevitable burn injury sustained in the Spring from someone that thinks they need to throw some gasoline on their burn pile to get it going.