Gas Can Fire Warning

From my brother in law in Oregon.


Here's the story from Mark:

"The guy at the end of the building, lost his Ford Ranger to a gas can fire.

He had a metal gas can full of gas in the direct sunlight on a very warm day last week. It was in the bed of the truck where a black plastic liner had been installed. The gas can burst open due to the gasoline evaporating and expanding.

So don't keep your metal gas can in the hot sun."

 

To be honest, sort of goes without saying. Sad loss of a nice little truck. Glad he didn't burn more
than the truck.

 

I wonder how it ignited? I have 5 NATO jerry cans, and a few times I’ve noticed them swell up considerably even in my garage out of direct sunlight. Wonder how the Rotopax style fair under a hot sun?

 

Gotta leave some expansion room but yeah in the sun is not good - saw a friend with a plastic 2 gal inn the sun this weekend (95) and when he opened to vent it vented for about 5-6 seconds - it had a lot of built up pressure - yikes.

 

I have 2 - 5 gal Specter Canadian Military Gasoline cans. About 8 - 5 gal diesel cans. I've hauled diesel cans for
months, slight expansion. I left a gasoline can in the back of the Tundra for a weekend, and I'll not ever leave it
exposed again - it will go inside a covered container to keep direct sun off it. It actually has a permanent swell
now. Makes me nervous. The lids screw on with a wrench so they won't open but I'm not comfortable with
them. I might look at one of the new CARB steel cans from stateside for gasoline.
Rotopax are just too expensive for me, so no other opinion on them but I sure do see alot of them here in
the Sacramento Valley for the last month, they must be tough!