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Below is a narrative of an accident I had while working on my Series. I guess it got behind me, and I forgot about until I read Nick Dawson's thread this morning about his leak on his fuel tank. Forgive me for the length, as I have a tendency to ramble...
While working on my '69, I punctured the fuel tank slightly. Really, I accidentally pushed against while trying to remove something else, and the resulting torque separated the laminates, creating a leak. The next day came around, and I decided to tackle the repair sooner rather than later.
I needed to drain the fuel tank. I was going to drain the rest of the fuel in the tank (I estimated it at about 2 gallons left) into a gas can. I positioned a funnel in the opening of the gas can, an gently loosened the drain plug. After completely removing the drain plug, it became clear to me that the fuel was rushing out faster than I would like. As I began to think of putting the drain plug back in, the funnel filled up and began spilling over the side, resulting in the funnel falling over and spilling all of the gas in the funnel onto the garage floor. Adrenaline flowing, I grabbed the drain plug and twisted back on as fast as I could, gas flowing all over until it was all the way closed (it was mostly closed, and there were a few drips, but waaaay better than it just was). All said and done, it was almost a gallon of gas that spilled onto the garage floor, creating a puddle about 4 feet in diameter.
I was worried, but not panicked. For the sake of safety, I thought, I would go get one of the fire extinguishers in my garage, and have it handy, in case something happened while I cleaned up the gas. I went for the large extinguisher and as I grabbed it, I noticed that the gauge read "Needs Re-charged". I sat it down, still thinking at this point that I probably wouldn't need one anyway. I turned to get the other extinguisher located even closer to me, when I heard the ominous sound that gas makes when it is ignited. I turned to look and saw that the 4-foot diameter puddle of gas, was now a puddle of fire standing about a foot off of the ground. Still trying not to panic, I tried to employ all of my fire extinuisher training that I have ever learned. I aimed it, squeezed, and nothing came out. I tried it several times, it failed me. I grabbed the other one again, and aimed and squeezed, nothing. Again, trying it several times to make certain that I hadn't accidentally left the cotter pin in it or something. Now, I'm panicked.
My wife comes home from the grocery and opens the garage door at about this time to find her husband running around throwing fire extinguishers, and knocking over ladders in the quest to find a way to put the fire out. This 4-foot puddle of terror was directly below my truck, and worse than that, was directly below the gas tank (which still had another gallon of gas in it). My wife ran in the garage and asked if she should call the fire department. I screamed yes, and to hurry,
I unravelled the hose in my garage and turned on the faucet. It "pee'd" water. I was furious. There must have been a kink in the hose somewhere. I needed gushing water, not peeing water. I wrestled with the hose, and got more water to flow. I aimed it at the flames, and got the fire tamed abit, but not all the way out. It would not stop. I noticed that the drain plug was not completely tight, and gas was still leaking, and flaming like a molotov cocktail. At this point, I truly thought that I would not be able to put the fire out, the gas tank would ignite, and I began to think that running was the only solution. I shoved the hose in the fill tube for the gas tank, and by this time the water was gushing. I was hoping to extinguish any fire in the tank, and turn the gas into water leaking out the bottom. I figured the fuel source of the fire would burn out eventually.
Somehow, I put it out. I probably should have run, but I am certain that the damage would have been much worse. By this time, the FWFD had showed up, and were exiting the monsterous red vehicle. I told them the story, heart pounding, vision blurred. They looked around, asked several questions, and left. Now all was better (it was not well, since I thought I would need a good de-fibb to get my heart going again, but it was better).
One of the things the firemen told me to do, and I thought was perfect advice, was to douse the garage floor with water, and flush the garage drain. As environmentally unfriendly as it is, I felt a little relieved that I had a place to flush this stuff, as it had already drained there anyway. I ran the hose for almost an hour; rinsing the floor around the accident, and wherever I thought there might still be gasoline. Possibly twenty gallons of water were used during this period. At one point, I thought I heard the sound of gasoline being ignited again, and I was terrified for an instant. It must have been one of the car parts I have resting up against the wall or something.
After all of the water spraying in the garage, I went to the basement to get the de-humidifier to bring to the garage to dry the garage well. I opened the basement door to the smell of smoke. Confused, I thought for an instant that it was residual smoke from the brief fire in the garage. As I descended the stairs, I found dense smoke in the back room and smelled badly of gasoline. I ran to the sump, not really knowing what to look for, and found that all of the PVC plumbing (sump pump, drain pipes, etc) were black and melted. Ding ding. Round 2. Hair standing up on back of neck...
I ran to the phone and called 911. I thought there might be fire in my walls or something. The FWFD showed up again, and they were perplexed as well. After about an hour of discussion, we decided that the following is probably what happened:
The drain in my garage is linked to my perimeter tile. I thought the garage drain went directly to the city sewer system, apparently not. Anyway, this gasoline-laced water made it's way around the perimeter of my property, and back to the drain sump in my basement. Evidently, the gasoline vapors are more dense than air, so they collected in the drain sump, and became pretty rich. After a few minutes they were ignited by the water heater, that sits about 18 inches from the sump in my basment. This is what I heard, when I was still in the garage, and I thought it was all over. The fire sat there and burned, unbeknownst to my wife or I or the firemen, until I went down and discovered the aftermath. Lucky I could call it aftermath. Lucky I didn't go down there to find a blazing fire from all the paper and wood products that miraculously didn't ignite.
Two possible lessons for anyone. Hopefully they are too obvious: 1) Keep up on your fire extinguisher maintenance. It's one of those things that always falls to the bottom of your list of priorities, since it seems like you never need it, but by God if you need it, it's the most important thing you can imagine at that moment. Not only should you make certain they are charged, but make sure you can get to them. Over the years, I had stored ladders and other things in front of them, that could have caused problems on top of them being in-op. 2) Be mindful of where your garage drain is plumbed (of course, if you have one). Any "hot" chemicals need to be dealt with differently than what I stated above.
I am very lucky to have an understanding wife. She didn't even hint at me selling the damn thing. I think she felt sorry for me more than anything else.
Hope this helps someone.
-Gary
While working on my '69, I punctured the fuel tank slightly. Really, I accidentally pushed against while trying to remove something else, and the resulting torque separated the laminates, creating a leak. The next day came around, and I decided to tackle the repair sooner rather than later.
I needed to drain the fuel tank. I was going to drain the rest of the fuel in the tank (I estimated it at about 2 gallons left) into a gas can. I positioned a funnel in the opening of the gas can, an gently loosened the drain plug. After completely removing the drain plug, it became clear to me that the fuel was rushing out faster than I would like. As I began to think of putting the drain plug back in, the funnel filled up and began spilling over the side, resulting in the funnel falling over and spilling all of the gas in the funnel onto the garage floor. Adrenaline flowing, I grabbed the drain plug and twisted back on as fast as I could, gas flowing all over until it was all the way closed (it was mostly closed, and there were a few drips, but waaaay better than it just was). All said and done, it was almost a gallon of gas that spilled onto the garage floor, creating a puddle about 4 feet in diameter.
I was worried, but not panicked. For the sake of safety, I thought, I would go get one of the fire extinguishers in my garage, and have it handy, in case something happened while I cleaned up the gas. I went for the large extinguisher and as I grabbed it, I noticed that the gauge read "Needs Re-charged". I sat it down, still thinking at this point that I probably wouldn't need one anyway. I turned to get the other extinguisher located even closer to me, when I heard the ominous sound that gas makes when it is ignited. I turned to look and saw that the 4-foot diameter puddle of gas, was now a puddle of fire standing about a foot off of the ground. Still trying not to panic, I tried to employ all of my fire extinuisher training that I have ever learned. I aimed it, squeezed, and nothing came out. I tried it several times, it failed me. I grabbed the other one again, and aimed and squeezed, nothing. Again, trying it several times to make certain that I hadn't accidentally left the cotter pin in it or something. Now, I'm panicked.
My wife comes home from the grocery and opens the garage door at about this time to find her husband running around throwing fire extinguishers, and knocking over ladders in the quest to find a way to put the fire out. This 4-foot puddle of terror was directly below my truck, and worse than that, was directly below the gas tank (which still had another gallon of gas in it). My wife ran in the garage and asked if she should call the fire department. I screamed yes, and to hurry,
I unravelled the hose in my garage and turned on the faucet. It "pee'd" water. I was furious. There must have been a kink in the hose somewhere. I needed gushing water, not peeing water. I wrestled with the hose, and got more water to flow. I aimed it at the flames, and got the fire tamed abit, but not all the way out. It would not stop. I noticed that the drain plug was not completely tight, and gas was still leaking, and flaming like a molotov cocktail. At this point, I truly thought that I would not be able to put the fire out, the gas tank would ignite, and I began to think that running was the only solution. I shoved the hose in the fill tube for the gas tank, and by this time the water was gushing. I was hoping to extinguish any fire in the tank, and turn the gas into water leaking out the bottom. I figured the fuel source of the fire would burn out eventually.
Somehow, I put it out. I probably should have run, but I am certain that the damage would have been much worse. By this time, the FWFD had showed up, and were exiting the monsterous red vehicle. I told them the story, heart pounding, vision blurred. They looked around, asked several questions, and left. Now all was better (it was not well, since I thought I would need a good de-fibb to get my heart going again, but it was better).
One of the things the firemen told me to do, and I thought was perfect advice, was to douse the garage floor with water, and flush the garage drain. As environmentally unfriendly as it is, I felt a little relieved that I had a place to flush this stuff, as it had already drained there anyway. I ran the hose for almost an hour; rinsing the floor around the accident, and wherever I thought there might still be gasoline. Possibly twenty gallons of water were used during this period. At one point, I thought I heard the sound of gasoline being ignited again, and I was terrified for an instant. It must have been one of the car parts I have resting up against the wall or something.
After all of the water spraying in the garage, I went to the basement to get the de-humidifier to bring to the garage to dry the garage well. I opened the basement door to the smell of smoke. Confused, I thought for an instant that it was residual smoke from the brief fire in the garage. As I descended the stairs, I found dense smoke in the back room and smelled badly of gasoline. I ran to the sump, not really knowing what to look for, and found that all of the PVC plumbing (sump pump, drain pipes, etc) were black and melted. Ding ding. Round 2. Hair standing up on back of neck...
I ran to the phone and called 911. I thought there might be fire in my walls or something. The FWFD showed up again, and they were perplexed as well. After about an hour of discussion, we decided that the following is probably what happened:
The drain in my garage is linked to my perimeter tile. I thought the garage drain went directly to the city sewer system, apparently not. Anyway, this gasoline-laced water made it's way around the perimeter of my property, and back to the drain sump in my basement. Evidently, the gasoline vapors are more dense than air, so they collected in the drain sump, and became pretty rich. After a few minutes they were ignited by the water heater, that sits about 18 inches from the sump in my basment. This is what I heard, when I was still in the garage, and I thought it was all over. The fire sat there and burned, unbeknownst to my wife or I or the firemen, until I went down and discovered the aftermath. Lucky I could call it aftermath. Lucky I didn't go down there to find a blazing fire from all the paper and wood products that miraculously didn't ignite.
Two possible lessons for anyone. Hopefully they are too obvious: 1) Keep up on your fire extinguisher maintenance. It's one of those things that always falls to the bottom of your list of priorities, since it seems like you never need it, but by God if you need it, it's the most important thing you can imagine at that moment. Not only should you make certain they are charged, but make sure you can get to them. Over the years, I had stored ladders and other things in front of them, that could have caused problems on top of them being in-op. 2) Be mindful of where your garage drain is plumbed (of course, if you have one). Any "hot" chemicals need to be dealt with differently than what I stated above.
I am very lucky to have an understanding wife. She didn't even hint at me selling the damn thing. I think she felt sorry for me more than anything else.
Hope this helps someone.
-Gary
I am lucky nothing like that happened.
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