Washington State Walmart Camper blows himself up

White gas. That s**t was dangerous. My father used it to ignite charcoal briquettes. I'm lucky that I still have eyebrows.

I was reluctant to give my old Coleman stoves and lanterns to the kids, afraid that they would blow themselves up?

Prior to UN-leaded gasoline, all the grades of *gasoline* were leaded.
You wouldn't want to burn leaded gasoline in your lantern or stove.

When tetra-ethyl "ethyl" was banned from gasoline, "dual-fuel" was pretty hard to avoid by Coleman marketing.

However "white gas" -Coleman Fuel- would still be my choice if using a liquid fueled lantern or stove.

Wiki does a nice description for each..

Coleman Fuel

Gasoline

Wiz - besides white gas at a gasoline station, some of us still fondly remember the *White Pump* at Chevron stations (which had nothing to do with white gas, LOL!)

And - a few military types will also fondly remember running 115-145 Av gas from your friendly USAF or ANG base.
(Valve job was in order soon, if you didn't "cut it" with Regular)

Back on/to the topic........

"wa8yxm" - apparently Central pierce FD either took the pic *before* overhaul, or left it "as is" prior to an investigation.
FD's won't leave it "cluttered".
The MH would be emptied out - with the "stuff" piled in the pk lot.

Giving the owner/occupant the benefit of the doubt (the cause) - he/she/they were lucky to have survived - regardless of "social status".


~

NO .. in 1962 it was "white gas" not unleaded

unleaded came later and still had additives, just not TEL tetra etyl lead

MrWizard wrote:
White gas
Iirc is pure refined gasoline, with absolutely no additives
50 yrs ago growing up in Indiana, we had two places in town with a manual pump where we could fill cans for our Coleman lanterns we used when fishing at night or camping

X 10... assuming that the pumps you refer to were puttin' out that then-new mixture called "unleaded gas".

But you have to hand it to the Coleman Marketing Department- once unleaded became just about the only thing one could buy at the pumps, Coleman started labeling their lanterns/stoves as "Dual Fuel™ power, runs on Coleman® Liquid Fuel or unleaded gasoline". Link

Of course, they're not tellin' us that they're one and the same. Except for the price, of course. ;)

Gotta love it! :B

White gas
Iirc is pure refined gasoline, with absolutely no additives
50 yrs ago growing up in Indiana, we had two places in town with a manual pump where we could fill cans for our Coleman lanterns we used when fishing at night or camping

Obviously his Flux Capacitor overloaded and the Temporal Time Vortex Re-floberator chose that time to pop a fuse...KABOOM! The rest was just the "after effects".

I agree with you Francesca (as usual), except for your evaluation of the level of cognizance displayed by meth cookers. It is a thriving cottage industry around our home in NC and neither paranoia, past convictions, nor dark of night keeps the "cookers" from their work. lizzie

Francesca Knowles wrote:
Good grief- there's nothing in this incident/pics that even suggests "rolling meth lab"!

Coleman fuel isn't a component of meth, fer cryin' out loud. And I'm pretty sure that drugmakers are a lit-tle too paranoid to set up a manufacturing facility in a Walmart parking lot. This not to mention that the process usually STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN, which is why so many such facilities are out in the woods where the odor won't be smelled by anyone.

What I see in those pics is more than one pump-type Coleman lantern, and as anyone knows that's ever used one there can be a big flashback if one's not real careful when lighting it.

And the firefighters themselves said there was fuel stored inside. Just striking a match could have set fumes off.

x2

Good grief- there's nothing in this incident/pics that even suggests "rolling meth lab"!

Coleman fuel isn't a component of meth, fer cryin' out loud. And I'm pretty sure that drugmakers are a lit-tle too paranoid to set up a manufacturing facility in a Walmart parking lot. This not to mention that the process usually STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN, which is why so many such facilities are out in the woods where the odor won't be smelled by anyone.

What I see in those pics is more than one pump-type Coleman lantern, and as anyone knows that's ever used one there can be a big flashback if one's not real careful when lighting it.

And the firefighters themselves said there was fuel stored inside. Just striking a match could have set fumes off.

Raften wrote:
Jeeze, another hasty conclusion. I'm slower with mine but one is forming up nicely.

If there was a large quantity of "coleman fuel" then maybe the rv was a rolling meth lab(a necesary component along with lots of stuff I cant imagine putting down my throat),not saying it was but stealing rv's and using them for a lab is on the rise per my LEO buddy.
More than likely just not thinking.