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Unlike many Internet-circulated warnings, this one had a fair bit of substance to it: fires at gas pumps were on the rise, and static electricity was considered one of the likely culprits in that increase. However, there's a great deal wrong with the summary quoted in the example above, a situation that illustrates the danger of accepting as gospel whatever turns up in your inbox. We'll take you through it, sorting information from misinformation. For starters, although Robert N. Renkes, Executive Vice President & General Counsel of the Petroleum Equipment Institute, did prepare a summary of refueling fires which appears on the PEI web site, most of the statements in the text of the circulating message quoted above grossly misrepresent that summary: Are gas station fires caused by static discharge a real danger to motorists? As the PEI notes, the dispensing of gasoline into the fuel tank of a motor vehicle is a safe operation, and Americans pump gasoline into their cars between 16 and 18 billion times a year generally without incident, but fires related to refueling at gas stations seem to be on the rise, and many of these fires are apparently not the result of the usual causes: open flames (mostly from cigarette smokers), sparks from the engine compartments of automobiles (primarily from drivers refueling cars with their motors running), or a lack of electrical continuity between nozzles and grounded dispensers. The PEI states that they don't have any definitive answers about the reasons for this increase, but they're trying to collect information on similar incidents so the industry can get a better handle on the cause(s) of the problem. Since virtually all the reported fires not attributable to the usual causes cited above have occurred during exceptionally dry weather, the working theory is that static electricity was the source of ignition. Why fires touched off by static electricity may have increased significantly of late remains undetermined, however, and groups such as the PEI are investigating several possible explanations: News reports of gas station fires caused by static electricity are a mixed bag of claims, warnings, and skepticism. In 2001, for example, automaker BMW announced a recall to refit cars they said had been responsible for two static-related fires: Two gas station fires in Missouri that same year were attributed to static as well, prompting a warning from the officials at the state's agriculture department: Portable fuel containers have also been claimed as one of the leading causes of static-caused fires: Some claims of static-triggered fires have been disputed by investigating officials: Even reports that maintain that static-induced fires are well documented point out that no case of a fire triggered by a cell phone — a commonly-cited cause of gas station fires — has ever been confirmed: For those who feel the possibility of static-caused fires warrants caution at the gas pumps, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission offers the following tips:
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