Wow this thing takes forever to fill up.

[Lollygag1]

Florida man mistakenly pumps gas onto the deck of his boat

Mistakenly inserting a fuel nozzle into a fishing pole slot, a Florida man pumped $60 worth of gasoline onto the deck of his boat and the ground of a gas station, fire rescue officials said.

The incident happened Monday in the Orlando area, Orange County Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles said on Twitter.

The gas flowed from the fishing pole hole and onto the deck of the 24-foot (7.3 meters) boat. The 31-year-old man realized his mistake and quit pumping.

As he tried to clean up the mess, the gasoline began leaking from the boat onto the ground at the 7-Eleven store. He told personnel and then called the fire department's non-emergency number, Jachles said.

A technical rescue team siphoned the gas from the boat and cleaned up. The situation was described as a “level 3 hazmat,” meaning the potential of hazard was high, Jachles said.

 

[localboy]

Idiot. At least it was a parking lot and not at some marina in the water.

 

[rgano]

So let's see, I'm gonna fill my boat up with gas, and gee, look here, I don't even have to remove the gas tank cap cuz it's already open.

 

[Mako]

He should have used a shop vac to clean it up.


Every 5 or 10 years you read about that in the news.

 

[rgano]

He should have used a shop vac to clean it up.


Every 5 or 10 years you read about that in the news.

Gas plus unshielded shopvac equals kaboom.

 

[menzies]

Gas plus unshielded shopvac equals kaboom.

I believe he knows that and was suggesting a Darwin candidate.

 

[psneeld]

It happens a lot more than you think.


The company I worked for used to tow the boats away from the fuel dock (depending) then use a vac truck for hazmat to suck the bilge dry.


I bet just in my 15 mile stretch of coastline as the tower, we would do it , about 3-4 times a year on average and there were many more where the guy started but caught it after just a few gallons or less. (no tow/vac truck needed or reported).

 

[rgano]

I believe he knows that and was suggesting a Darwin candidate.

I shoulda guessed!!!

 

[mahal]

Poor guy. I wonder if this wasn't an elderly person with some age related cognitive decline. If so, very sad. There's people in my family that I wouldn't be surprised if they did this. But we also have very old folks that are still very sharp. I hope to to be like the latter, but brace for the first.

 

[localboy]

Poor guy. I wonder if this wasn't an elderly person with some age related cognitive decline. If so, very sad. There's people in my family that I wouldn't be surprised if they did this. But we also have very old folks that are still very sharp. I hope to to be like the latter, but brace for the first.

Says 31 yr old male. New boat? Rushing? High? Who knows...

 

[mahal]

Says 31 yr old male. New boat? Rushing? High? Who knows...

Oops, missed that part.

 

[Lollygag1]

Jethro, hold my beer while I fill her up.

 

[Solly]

I've seen this happen. Another boat at the fuel dock. Guy wasn't paying attention.
Didn't worry too much until the bilge pump kicked on. I know they should be ignition protected but I didn't want to be around to see it proved. Really strong odor of gasoline.
They ended up towing the boat to the trailer, pulling it out, and draining it into a 50 gal. drum from the drain plug.

Scary stuff when the only way to shore is to pass the fuel pump.

 

[Pete Meisinger]

I always say there is a boat for everyone. Methinks this guy should have a toy boat in his bath tub.

pete

 

[Mako]

Gas plus unshielded shopvac equals kaboom.

I recall a story about a father blowing himself and his 5 year old boy up years ago. Shop vac + gasoline = ****

 

[OldDan1943]

Poor guy. I wonder if this wasn't an elderly person with some age related cognitive decline. If so, very sad. There's people in my family that I wouldn't be surprised if they did this. But we also have very old folks that are still very sharp. I hope to to be like the latter, but brace for the first.

Ummmm, how old is "an elderly person"?

 

[HopCar]

At least he was smart enough to call the fire dept.
Didn’t the Myth Busters suck gasoline with a shop vac once? I think they were trying to make a jet engine.

 

[mahal]

Ummmm, how old is "an elderly person"?

I'd have to see the person. I wouldn't consider this 80 year old in the video to be one.

 

[firehoser75]

Went to a call once where a woman had decided that gasoline would work well as a floor wax stripper!

She didn't think about the pilot lights on her natural gas furnace or hot water tank or else thought she could "get away with it".

A very sad, but mostly predictable result! She wasn't elderly.

 

[GFC]

Many, many years ago before I met and fell in love with GW I had a girlfriend who was helping me get the boat ready for a weekend trip. She was filling the water tank, or so she thought. She filled one of my two gas tanks with water. She wasn't a girlfriend of mine for long after that.

 

[Baker]

You guys should check yourself. This could happen to any one of you. And if you don't think so, then you must be perfect. If you are around a fuel dock, it happens quite often. Not just rod holders, but gas into diesel tanks and diesel into gas tanks. THe only way you can learn from something like this is to realize it could happen to you!!!

 

[rslifkin]

Incidents of confusion like this make me appreciate that the caps for my fuel fills are twice the size of the caps on the other deck fittings. And the fuel fills are at the transom corners, not near any of the other fittings or any other holes a nozzle could be inserted into. So it would take much more than a small mistake to get it wrong.

For boats with the seemingly too common fuel and water fills next to each other on a side deck with same-size caps, it might be worth making some changes to make it harder to confuse which hole is which.

 

[grahamdouglass]

You guys should check yourself. This could happen to any one of you. And if you don't think so, then you must be perfect. If you are around a fuel dock, it happens quite often. Not just rod holders, but gas into diesel tanks and diesel into gas tanks. THe only way you’d can learn from something like this is to realize it could happen to you!!!

This not only happens with fuel and water. I had a friend plug in my 30 amp electrical power cord to the marina we were visiting.
I saw a flash and asked him what was going on. He was trying to connect to 50 amp. Had to buy a new cord because he arced a chunk of metal off of on of the prongs. Still can’t figure out how he could have made that mistake,

 

[firehoser75]

You guys should check yourself. This could happen to any one of you. And if you don't think so, then you must be perfect. If you are around a fuel dock, it happens quite often. Not just rod holders, but gas into diesel tanks and diesel into gas tanks. THe only way you can learn from something like this is to realize it could happen to you!!!

Agree completely. Check twice, pour once!

 

[Capitaine R]

That had to be a big dangerous mess to clean up, but its going to be a real pain in the butt when he trys to get his fishing pole out of the gas tank.

 

[slowgoesit]

Jethro, hold my beer while I fill her up.

Actually, I believe the comment is "hold my beer AND MY CIGARETTE while I fill her up." How many times have we seen people at the filling station, either on land, or on the water at the gas dock, smoking while filling up?

Hint: WAY too many times . . .

 

[menzies]

Many, many years ago before I met and fell in love with GW I had a girlfriend who was helping me get the boat ready for a weekend trip. She was filling the water tank, or so she thought. She filled one of my two gas tanks with water. She wasn't a girlfriend of mine for long after that.

This is actually one of the things myself and the missus are anal about.

Whenever we are putting in water or diesel, once we open the deck cap we call the other to check that we have opened the right one. That is regardless of whether I open it or she does. We can stare at the deck fill label all we want but still get second eyeballs on it.

We have 425 gallon saddle tanks and a 350 gallon water tank - so it would be a long time before we realized something was up and we got the wrong one - and a long time to correct it if we did.

One story from the 2018's Bahamas cruise. We stopped at the Treasure Cay fuel dock to top up, putting in about 150 gallons. My wife opened the deck fill, called me and I looked and said "yep, good to go."

She proceeded to fill and after less than a minute fuel came out onto the deck and the fuel nozzle stopped. We always have a bilge diaper around the fill so once she yelped I cleaned everything up.

I went below to check the starboard fuel tube and it showed plenty of room. Went back on deck puzzled as to why the fuel had come out.

Standing there scratching my head I realized that she had opened the forward 150 gallon tank instead of the saddle tank (both are on the starboard side). We fill the forward tank in the States and leave it full for our cruises as our emergency supply in case we get bad fuel in the islands. Of course both deck fills say diesel which is why I missed it!

We swapped fills and were good to go. But it just shows how even two sets of eyes can miss something simple!

 

[Blissboat]

The OP's post begins with, "Florida man . . ."

That explains everything.

 

[menzies]

The OP's post begins with, "Florida man . . ."

That explains everything.

Good thing we are really in Southern Georgia, right?

 

[localboy]

Our water fill is at the starboard stern corner of the gunwale. Both fuel fills are on the gunwales where the cabin bulkhead meets the cockpit, on both sides. Closest one is about 6' away from the water fill. For me to make that mistake would mean I was senile or so mentally deficient that I would be institutionalized.