Very scary!!!!!

On Monday the head of our maintenance department at school headed to cut some grass after lunch. The mower ran out of gas. One of the other guys brought him gas and he filled the mower up and just as it was about fill a small amount of gas splashed and must have hit something hot and and the mower went up in flames. The mower was off and had been sitting for several minutes. Our guy caught on fire on his legs and couldn't get it out... the guy who brought the gas was luckily still there and helped him get his pants off. Maintenance guy is in the hospital with some pretty severe burns to his legs, but should make a full recovery. He SURE is LUCKY!









This is the remnants of the gas can:

Wow! Someone was looking out for him. :shock:

It could have ignited due to static electricity between the mower and the plastic gas can. I work around jet fuel, gasoline and diesel and we ground everything together before transferring fuel from one place to another. We do not use plastic gas cans. It is also a good idea to release any static between you and you vehicle before filling by touching a metal part of your vehicle. Wool type sweaters are very bad at creating static that can cause a spark when filling your tank. When you slide out of your seat in your car it may create static electricity. Be careful.

**** - that was a nice Scag that got flamed as well

:shock: Dang, glad to hear he'll recover!


I always try to wait until the mower engine cools-down some before refueling. Years ago while stationed aboard a floating drydock, some shipyard workers were refueling a large wheeled welding machine they had placed in the drydock basin. It had been running quite awhile before refueling, and during refueling some fuel splashed on to the hot engine and ignited. The flames shot 40 feet up to the top of the drydock wing wall. We got to put our fire training to use that day. Luckily no one was injured, but I think the shipyard guy went home to rest after that.

KMixon you're correct about the static electricity. My first ship was a fleet oiler (5mil gallons of fuel), and nylon windbreakers were not permitted aboard for the very reason of the static electricity they can produce.

Glad to hear that he is ok other than the burns. It could have been a LOT worse!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad to hear he is OK and should recover. I agree it could have been a lot worse.

Wow, he was lucky.

I did sort of the same thing with my snowblower while in the garage. Evacuated the house & called the fire department.

In the end here's what it looked like.



I DID sell the thing on eBAY. Nobdy got hurt and my garage survived.

-Cheech

Cheech said:

Wow, he was lucky.

I did sort of the same thing with my snowblower while in the garage. Evacuated the house & called the fire department.

In the end here's what it looked like.

I DID sell the thing on eBAY. Nobdy got hurt and my garage survived.

-Cheech

Click to expand...

:LOL2: Did it at least melt the snow?

I guess that is why they put that little sticker near fuel tanks that states "wait at least 2 minutes for engine to cool before refueling" :shock:

njTom said:

I guess that is why they put that little sticker near fuel tanks that states "wait at least 2 minutes for engine to cool before refueling" :shock:

Click to expand...

Yeah but who really reads that! :LOL2:

I think I will now! :LOL2:

he is very very lucky to be alive!.. [-o<

njTom said:

I guess that is why they put that little sticker near fuel tanks that states "wait at least 2 minutes for engine to cool before refueling" :shock:

Click to expand...

Thing is it was at least 5 minutes probably more like 10 before they got gas from the maintenance barn to were the mower ran out of gas.

Glad they are both OK.

Gas is a dangerous product.
Think about that the next time you see someone at eht gas station get in and out of thier car. Cell phones around gas is a nono too.

Update... he is still in the hospital and in a lot of pain but still expected to recover fully. They did have to do skin grafts on the back of his left leg and he should be out of the hospital sometime this week.

Thanks for the update, Know that its not good, but could have been a LOT worse!