chimp wrote:Just to put this to bed, in a previous life I was a tanker driver for mobil, static can only be caused by Diesel not by petrol.
Petrol VAPOUR has a very low flash point 43cel and is heavier than air " petrol does not burn Vapour does" ie: sit on ya bike, fill ya tank, vapour cascades down over the engine area " engine hot = balls of fire and nowhere to run!
chances of this happening = rare"..... if it does it will blow you off your bike, burn all oxygen around you & you wont be able to breathe, & if you have your helmet off you will have 3rd degree burns on your skin " all in 2 seconds"
My 2 bobs worth - 22 years in the fuel distribution business -
Static
can be caused by petrol, but Diesel is a poor conductor so generates more static when flowing. A static disapator is added to Diesel and Kerosene to mitigate the risk.
I have seen two videos (service station CCTV footage) where fires have started in service stations and the ignition source was a mobile phone. One from the Caltex F3 service stations the other from Brazil. The guy in Brazil was killed, the other, a girl sitting inside a car only ended up with singed hair.
I have also seen during a fire training session a guy drop a lighted match into a beaker of petrol and the match went out. With a small opening a beaker/cup/petrol can the vapour is too dense with not enough oxygen present to allow ignition.
You've got to get off eventually to pay so why a big deal...........