[m miles]

The news journal is reporting a boat fire today at a marina on P Beach. Someone was injuried and a couple boats damaged. Anyone heard anything? I hope the injury isn't to serious.

 

[Tackle Rep]

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071031/NEWS01/710310365

that sucks ,

 

[John B.]

i saw the smoke around 2:30-3ish... i think... and then i choked on the smoke a few minutes later... myself and about 15 others were surfing at the cross.... once we could smell the fumes, we new it was a boat on fire... nothing matches the smell of burning fiberglass.

i haven't seen what's left of the boat, if anything is, but i hope everyone's ok, and they have insurance.

 

[GONU]

My son and I seen the smoke at about 2:00pm i think we were fishing by Bob Sikes, thought it might be a boat fire. Glad to hear nobody was seriously injured.

 

[Telum Pisces]

Gas fumes and a vacuum do not go together. The sparks from the electric motor in the vacuum apearently set if off. Glad no one was seriously hurt, and it is a good reminder of why they put blowers are boats. I have seen way to many people start their I/O or inboard without first running the blower. Not a good idea.

 

[John B.]

Knot a Yacht (10/31/2007)Gas fumes and a vacuum do not go together. The sparks from the electric motor in the vacuum apearently set if off. It saidinthe caption of one of the photos that the owner of one boat was vacuuming when gas fumes started the fire.

that's no good.

 

[Sequoiha]

a friend of mine Jeff Shirk, has a 31 horn 2 boats down that got burned as well,, seems a mechanic removed a fuel tank, then attempted to vacuum the spilled fuel. then boom... sucks for sure,, from what i was told the mechanic was smart enough to jump into the water,,:usaflag

 

[fishnfool]

"vacuum" spilled fuel??!! HELLOOOOOOO!!! He's lucky to be ALIVE after that kind of stuff. Too bad about the boats being damaged.....especially seeings that I don't have one right now(but may have a deal in the works again!) Good luck to the hurt tech.

 

[Tuna Man]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=smalltxt vAlign=top><SPAN id=_ctl1_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl7_lblFullMessage>" seems a mechanic removed a fuel tank, then attempted to vacuum the spilled fuel. then boom... mechanic was smart enough to jump into the water "</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

How smart can one be to use a vacuum to suck up anything flammable....Maybe reading this just might stick into someone's mind and avert this from happening to one of us. Although I have a blower (I/O), and it's powered by 12V, I open the hatches (when selecting battery switch position) for a few minutes before I use the blower, then start the engine. Even a 12V blower can ignite fuel. If for some reason there is vapors and the blower sets them off, at least I won't have 3 hatches acting likeIED's.

 

[sosmarine]

I hope the mechanic had insurance. I see a court battle on the horizon.

 

[MR.STAAL]

me an ol chris phillips went an looked at it, we thought it was 2 charter boats, but they were to little boats.....



thats sucks though, shit was all messed up

 

[fishnfool]

sosmarine (10/31/2007)I hope the mechanic had insurance. I see a court battle on the horizon.

man, I didn't even THINK about that aspect Bill. Holy smokes can you imagine THIS one!!

 

[1923]

Since both of my boats are i/o I use the " stick your nose down there method " befor I even turn on the blower. It may be over kill but a visual check and a sniff give me peace of mind.

 

[bonita dan]

Glad no one was seriously injured,boats can be replaced,lives can't! What was this guy thinking though with a vacuum cleaner(shop-vac i'm assuming) and what was he gonna do with the gas once removed,put it in his truckoke Oh and Chris theres no overkill in being safe,especially when it comes down to gas and gas fumes. Better safe than sorry

 

[Tackle Rep]

The fumes is what would combust he could have had a small short in the vacume , or the power source on the boat , the 110 outlet, a number of things. Still not a good idea.They have special pumps for sucking up gasoline . he was lucky, could have been a big KABOOM!

 

[John B.]

turns out i know the guy... in his defense, he knows what he's doing and the way this happened could have happened to anyone...he wasn't trying to vacuum up spilled gasoline... we was putting in a bigger fuel cell, so he pulled the old one out, and was cutting the fiberglass to make room for the bigger fuel cell, so when he went to vacuum up the bits of fiberglass, theshop-vac was sitting in the stearn of the boat, apperently right on top of some fuel that had spilt... well... you know what happened next

 

[offshore64]

they tried doing something like that on mythbusters a while back...i dont remember anything exploding

 

[Bill Me]

I was thinking the same thing. They tried everything to create an explosion without success. I'm sending this to them and telling them they need to try again. One Myth UNBUSTED!!!!

 

[Big Red]

Don't know about "Myth Busters" not being able to do it. But in 1998 a co-worker at Lockheed Martin in Littleton CO. burned his garage, car& half his house down by trying to use his shop vac to clean up a gas spill. If I remember right, he said it was just a little over a gallon, he was using it to clean parts & spilled it. Big explosion, blew him right out of the garage. He was lucky to get away with just 1st. & 2nd degree burns.

 

[Beefisher]

Why do we ignore the rules of life like: Air:Gasoline vapor @ 15:1 = more powerful explosive than TNT.

Gasoline powered vessel - vent bilge / turn on blowers 5 min before any activity, i.e. start engines or starting maintenance.

I was told these things over and over by my PaPa.

Sorry for the loss and glad nobody died.