Is it true that a puddle of gasoline can be set fire to a cigarette thrown into it?

In many action -packed films, you can see how a cigarette beless at first glance causes a fire. We checked how realistic such scenes are.

In Eldar Ryazanov’s film “Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia” (1973) there is a famous episodeIn which the hero of Tano Chimarosis throws a smoldering cigar towards the gas station. A few moments after the landing of a cigar in a gasoline puddle, the station takes off into the air. This technique has gained no less popularity in the West - for example, it can be seen in the tie of the film "Ordinary suspects" (1995), as well as in key scenes of films "Pay" (1999) with Mel Gibson and "3000 miles to Graceland" (2001) with Kevin Costner.

It may seem to the layman that the answer to this question is easy to get by comparing two numbers. Temperature At the tip of a lit cigarette - around 700–950 ° C. Temperature Fences of gasoline - in the region of 232 ° C. It seems that such a ratio does not promise any obstacles. However, let's see how it is in practice.

In 2013, Fire Technology magazine was published study Howard Marcus and Justin Gaiman, employees of the alcohol bureau, tobacco, firearms and explosives at the US Department of Justice. The purpose of the study was practical - according to statistics, in the USA annually about 2,400 fires in residential buildings are associated with gasoline, and half of them are classified as intentional. The experimenters made more than 4,500 attempts to set fire to gasoline with smoldering cigarettes of various brands, but not one of them was crowned with success. And this despite the fact that the most different conditions were created - the cigarette butt was thrown into a puddle, into a container with gasoline or a pair of this substance was sprayed towards it. As the tests showed, the reason for the failure is that the temperature of the cigarette drops significantly at the moment when it is not delayed. In addition, the main danger to ignition is not gasoline itself, but its pairs. In the open air (for example, at a gas station), the probability of the desired (1-6%) concentration of these vapors is extremely low. In addition, according to the assurances of scientists, the fire is also prevented by the rapid formation of ash on a cigarette. In other words, for arson of a gasoline puddle you need to drag out a cigarette at its very surface.

Long before the scientists, back in 2005, the leading show "Destroyers of Legends" came to a similar conclusion. In the special releasededicated to Hollywood stamps, they found out that a cigarette could potentially set fire to gasoline in an open capacity, but it is enough for this to be enough at the time of tightening. Thus, ignition was regarded as very unlikely, and such attempts are fraught with serious face burns.

The methods of the show "Destroyers of legends" are far from always convincing from a scientific point of view (in this case, at least by virtue of much smaller scale), so it would be excessive to mention this program against the background of a scientific article. If not for one important circumstance.

In September 1986, Chicago broke out in an apartment building in the southwest fire, as a result of which the Guadeloupa brothers and Hulio Martineza died. The surviving brother and sister of Martinezov told the police that earlier their neighbor threatened to set fire to the building in revenge for the death of her brother, which was supposed to be a victim of one of the Latin American gangs. However, a neighbor and several more local residents pointed to an 18-year-old guy named John Galven. And although the young man had Alibi (on the night of the fire he slept with his grandmother), the police eventually arrested him and several people close to him. The fact is that the detective who led the interrogation chained Galven handcuffs to the wall and literally knocked out recognition from him, promising freedom in exchange for the surrender of “accomplices”. One of the important elements of the case was the establishment of the circumstances of the arson - as claimed, the adolescents threw a bottle of gasoline on the porch, and then threw the cigarette butt into the puddle formed. As a result, three guys 18, 20 and 22 years were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Passed 21 years. Once, John Galven looked in his cell in his cell the next issue of the show “Destroyers of Legends” - the same one we told you about above. He hastily contacted his lawyer, who prepared the grounds for the third petition with a request to revise the work of Galven. This moment coincided with the news that the detective who interrogated 18-year-old Galven was caught in other cases of forcibly knocking out the testimony. Shortly before, in the same bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives they conducted experiment, only a smaller scale than years later (2000 attempts instead of 4500). All experiments failed, but Galven's battle with the judicial system stretched for many years. In 2017, a hearing took place at which a fabor expert spoke in favor of Galven, and only in this, 2022, the three victims were made acquittal The verdict - after the total 105 years in prison for a crime that they did not commit. And although the criminal behavior of a police detective was an important motive for revising the case, natural science arguments played a role in verdict. It is impossible to set fire to a gasoline puddle with an abandoned cigarette butt. At the same time, it is still usually forbidden to smoke on a gas station - if only because a match is entered into business or lighter. Anyway, We categorically do not recommend conducting such experiments on our own.

Photo on the cover: Flickr

Not true

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