Thursday, May 26, 2016

A Potentially Explosive Situation not being Addressed by Fire Officials. Pleasure Boats being fueled on trailers while sitting in Gas Stations

You should never put gas into a gas can when it is sitting in the trunk of a car or bed of a truck you should take the can be it plastic or metal and place it on the ground  to eliminate the potential of the gas igniting  from static electric.

So I ask the question?

Is it safe to fuel pleasure boats sitting on steel trailers in a gas station 

I see this practice many times during the summer because it is much cheaper to fuel your inboard boat at a gas station than at the gas pump at the Marina.

But this same deadly static could just as easily happen because you have a non grounded gas tank on a Fiberglas boat sitting on a steel trailer.

The other problem you now have a boat full of gas being transported and posibly being involved in an accident before it gets put into the water .

I have gone thru numerous Fie codes and while filling portable containers is in codes there is nothing which addresses  fueling a pleasure boat on a trailer. It appears NFPA and UL and Fire officials are asleep at the switch on this one . Probably because they do not realize such fueling is going on.
Particularly here in Western Pa where we have one of the highest number of registered pleasure boats in the country and largest inland Port with 3 rivers converging.

Yes there have been cases of Gas stations exploding in this area when people improperly fueled and I am worried it is just a matter of time till one of these boats being fueled some time 2 or more at a time at a gas station goes off like a bomb.

It time to look at this issue investigate it and take appropriate actions before some one gets seriously injured or killed all because some one wants to save some money.

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