Women At Greater Risk
Of Gas Pump Fires

NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2002 -- Although most motorists fuel up at self-service gas stations and proceed without incident, some people have experienced an unusual but extremely dangerous occurrence. On Wednesday, November 13, Inside Edition's Matt Meagher reported that static electricity can lead to deadly fires at self-service gas pumps, because it can ignite highly flammable gas vapors.

"Static can build up when people slide in and out of their vehicles, while they're filling up their tanks… we believe that it can [occur] 1000 times a year across the United States," Steve Fowler, a top expert on static electricity, explains to the top-rated syndicated newsmagazine. Fowler says most of these fires happen to women because "they are more likely to get in and out of their vehicle for security reasons after they've started the pump."

Inside Edition reports on Ann Gouker, a 33-year-old mother of four from Sands Spring, OK, who was killed by a large fire at a self-service gas station. The cause of the fire was static electricity. Experts believe that when Ann saw a flash fire around her tank, her instincts most likely told her to remove the nozzle from the car. This, however, caused the fire to spread, because the fuel kept pouring out of the nozzle.

Officer Jeff Dowd, who arrived on the scene, recalls, "The body was so engulfed in flames that I could not distinguish male or female. I just knew that it was a body on fire." Ann was rushed to the hospital but died the next day.

Ann's husband, Mike, sued the gas station and the Dover Corporation, the maker of the nozzle. Mike's lawsuit claimed that the nozzle was defective and should have shut off when it hit the ground. He also claimed that the nozzle did not have a safety option, which is relatively inexpensive, that would have shut off gas flow when the nozzle was raised out of a tank.

"My wife died for less than 25 cents worth of material that goes in the nozzles," Gouker said. The case was ultimately settled.

The report also details a case in Las Vegas. Eleven-year-old Alexis Camfora was pumping gas while her mother was paying the clerk inside a station. In a split second, a fire erupted around the gas tank. Alexis spent four months in the hospital and had 21 operations. Most of her body below the neck is scarred.

When asked why she pulled the nozzle out of the gas tank after the initial fire erupted, Alexis replied, "Because I was afraid the car was going to blow up or something might happen that might make it worse." Fire officials say, if a fire ignites near the tank - NEVER pull the nozzle out.

The manufacturers of gas pumps declined to be interviewed by Inside Edition, but their trade group has initiated an awareness campaign. They've produced a safety video and made it available to TV stations. And some gas stations are now warning customers to keep the nozzle in the tank if a fire begins. One gas chain in South Carolina even has devices for motorists to touch before they gas up in order to discharge static.

Back to the top |