From the local paper:

About 2 p.m. Sunday, the victim and his brother were removing the gas tank of a motor home with a torch in the 300 block of East Alder Lane, said Chino Valley Fire Department spokesman Mathew Mayhall, but "apparently, he didn't purge out all of the fuel, or cap off some of the openings that go into the fuel tank."

Gasoline vapors ignited and caught his clothes on fire, said Mayhall.
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Just a reminder. The first approach should be to break the rust. If daily applications of PB or Kroil don't do the job, blow the oil away with brake cleaner and apply a drop of muriatic or hydrochloric acid daily.

As a last resort, cut the hardware. A large bolt cutter or hand hacksaw is best, as neither produces a spark. A hand grinder or torch requires that the tank be drained and filled with either CO2 from dry ice or exhaust from a car exhaust. Completely filling the tank with water works, but only if you are sure there is no air space. This removes the oxygen that will support combustion. If the exhaust method is used, do it for half an hour. I know people who use a leaf blower to purge the emptied tank of vapors for a while, and keep it running when working. I prefer the automotive exhaust method because the heat does a more thorough job of drying the tank and "cooking" out any residual components that could make an explosive vapor.

NEVER believe ANY amount or water purging will be safe. There is still a roof missing in my home town from a shop that believed water purging was adequate.

The fire chief spokesman's statement "apparently, he didn't purge out all of the fuel, or cap off some of the openings that go into the fuel tank." was incomplete. One must not only "purge out all of the fuel" but must purge out all the vapors. At the airline, we never went in a drained and sumped tank until an explosimeter told us it was safe. Even then, we had giant venturies moving fresh air through the tank.

Repairing gas tanks is like working on land mines...

I get spooked when I hear about exhaust leaks and boiling gas tanks, etc! Some people are lucky to be alive.

We always drained, then water rinse, then nitrogen or CO2 flush. (Several tanks were rusty inside so we put in some small rocks and rolled em around. By the time we got the rocks and scale out we didn't have much to worry about fumes!)

quote:

Originally posted by Steve VW:


We always drained, then water rinse, then nitrogen or CO2 flush.

I use dry ice to make the CO2

quote:

(Several tanks were rusty inside so we put in some small rocks and rolled em around.

For motorcycle tanks, I add either muriatic or phosphoric acid or Coca Cola to the rocks.

The victim should at least be a semi-finalist for this year's DARWIN AWARD (posthumously I suppose)

I'd bet a nickel that some of the fuel and vent hoses in the area were cracked, allowing communication between the flame and he vapor in the tank.

I always knew someday I would drop my tank. To that end, whenever I was underneath, I shot the tank mounts with PB. Years later, when I finally felt like it, all went fairly well. I was able to re-use all the hardware. Well, the nuts were replaced with brass ones.