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Did a cellphone spark a gas station fire?
The Associated Press via Engadget reports on an incident - similar reported incidents are widely credited as being urban legends - whereby flames shot up around a college student whose cell phone rang while he was pumping gas. "Firefighters said Matthew Erhorn, a SUNY New Paltz student, received minor burns at a Mobil station near Interstate 87 Thursday night. Firefighters believe the cell phone ignited vapors coming from the car's fuel tank as it was being filled. They used an oxygen-killing white powder and extinguished the fire immediately". According to Snope, one of the Interneet's Urban Legends Reference sites, such stories are false. [...] After several reports in the United States where mobile phones were blamed for fires at gas stations, both the CTIA and the American Petroleum Institute issued statements denying the risk. The CTIA said, "There is no evidence whatsoever that a wireless phone has ever caused ignition or explosion at a station anywhere in the world. Wireless phones don't cause gas stations to blow up. Warnings being posted in petrol stations simply perpetuate the myth." The American Petroleum Institute said, "We can find no evidence of someone using a cellphone causing any kind of accident, no matter how small, at a gas station anywhere in the world." It would be interesting to see if the AP sticks by their story. Or if the CTIA and the API modify their statements. Related article: Could a cell phone have caused the deadly fireworks explosion in Florida? |
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