Show Death in a Gasoline Dru DruWE Drum TUB WE E WONDER how many thousands of people people peo- peo pie in Salt Lake City r read ad with a very intense intense intense in in- tense personal interest the story about the two boys who were burned one of them fatally while getting gasoline out of a 50 gallon 50 gallon drum drumin in which it had been stored Everybody who put aside a little cache of gasoline at it the time gasoline rationing went into effect should have been very much interested in that story story story-be- be because cause it could happen to any anyone one of them Every bit of gasoline stored above ground I in containers is a potential source of sudden death For one thing gasoline is highly ex ex- plosive Assistant Chief J. J K Piercey in charge of fire prevention work for the Salt Lake fire department says that one gallon of gasoline properly vaporized has the explosive explosive explosive sive power of 83 pounds of dynamite For another gasoline fumes even though not concentrated so as to make an explosive mixture mixture mixture mix mix- ture are highly inflammable inflammable and and it is a peculiar pe peculiar peculiar pe- pe culiar property of gasoline fumes that they will cling to clothing Thus if you are working working working work work- ing around gasoline draining it out of a drum to put into your car your clothing may become impregnated with the gasoline fumes then if ifa ifa ifa a spark of some kind sets the gasoline aflame anywhere it will quickly spread to your clothing and in a matter of seconds you may maybe maybe maybe be a blazing torch torch and and you'll be very lucky to come out alive Just what caused the gasoline explosion which burned these two youths near Bountiful ful resulting in death for one and serious in injury injury injury in- in jury for the other isn't certain It may have been a spark from a or it may have been that fumes were ignited by some flame some distance away It is a fact that gasoline can be set ablaze by a flame many feet away which ignites fumes and carries the flash flashback flashback flashback back to the gas gasoline ine itself A spark of static electricity can cause an explosion also The storing of gasoline in a a large drum is x particularly dangerous because as the drum is emptied by periodic withdrawals of gasoline the the unfilled part of the drum becomes packed with highly dangerous fumes The danger isn't I even over when the drum is empty There will be plenty of gasoline left clinging to the inside of the drum to cause a bad explosion Assistant Chief Piercey says gasoline will cling to the metal of a drum and it may stay there actually for years He cites the case casein casein casein in Tooele of a gasoline tank on a car which had been abandoned for three years and which I exploded when some small boys played with the tank near a fire He says the only way gasoline fumes can be eliminated from a drum is with live steam Gasoline is dynamite Remember that and handle it with the greatest care care or or better yet not not at all Lets Let's not have any anymore more of tl these ese fatalities and serious injuries s as a result of gasoline hoarding in Utah |