SPRINGVILLE — A fire chief says static electricity generated by a woman sliding across a car seat sparked a fire that engulfed a sport-utility vehicle at a gas pump Tuesday.
Springville Fire Chief Phil Whitney said Shauna Raught had placed the gas nozzle into her 1996 Isuzu Trooper and returned to the car to sit with her 5-year-old son. As the fuel approached the $30 mark, the Springville resident slid out of the car and reached for the nozzle.
That's when she saw a spark leap from her hand to the nozzle, igniting the fumes.
Startled, Raught jumped back, apparently spilling fuel on the car. The blaze spread to the passenger side of her vehicle where her son was sitting, strapped into a car seat.
Other customers at the Maverik gas station near I-15 at about 1400 North and 1700 West rescued the screaming boy from the burning car.
Two other vehicles were damaged by the flames, Whitney said. Raught and her son were treated for burns at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and released, but the car was destroyed.
Fuel-pump fires ignited by static electricity are rare, especially considering that Americans gas up their cars an estimated 11 billion to 12 billion times a year.
But officials say this is the third such fire reported in Utah.
One previous incident also occurred after a woman sat in her car while the gas was pumping, then exited and touched the fuel handle. The other fire began when a man filled a portable gas container sitting on a truck bed.
More than 10 fuel fires were reported in the country last year, resulting from various scenarios involving static electricity.
Because of the extreme flammability of gasoline, many gas stations display stickers warning customers against getting back in their vehicles and using cellular phones or other electronic devices while pumping gas.
Experts from the Petroleum Equipment Institute, a trade association for companies involved in the petroleum industry, say static electricity generated from entering and exiting a car is much more dangerous than any threat posed by using a cellular phone at the pump.
According to the institute's Web site, the threat of cellular phones starting a fire is unsubstantiated.
But they claim to have sufficient documentation showing static electricity is a legitimate danger.
The most common mistake drivers make in generating static electricity is by re-entering their vehicle after the gasoline is flowing, according to officials.
"If you (do) get back into your car, touch the car or the gas pump (when you get out) before you reach for the nozzle," Whitney said. "That will ground you and dissipate the static electricity."
Gasoline is so flammable that every approved gasoline hose is lined with a metal conductor to help with friction that can be created by the flow of the fuel.
Carbon fibers in the hoses are designed to conduct the static electricity away so an arc is not formed, thereby preventing sparks from igniting within the fuel pump
But even the fumes can be deadly, especially in dry weather and in dry climates.
"The drier it is, the more likely it is to happen," said Richard Christiansen, associate dean of the engineering and technology department at Brigham Young University. "It's very unlikely to happen in a rain storm or in fog. The moisture won't allow any charge to build up."
Contributing: Rodger L. Hardy
E-mail: achoate@desnews.com