oh geez - major gas spill on driveway - will it ignite?

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jasonmrenda

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i know it sounds rediculous, but my wife is coming back with the baby after 4 days away. i walked the dog this morning and smelled gas and looked at the dart - somehow the fuel line was below the tank or something so gravity did its magic and ther is a huge gas stain on what used to be the driveway. already ate through the asphalt. i can handle that and either repave it - which we prob should anyway - or dig it/fill it with stuff. my concern is it is going to be 90 degrees today and i am not home. can this ignite without a match? i know it sounds dumb but i get nervous with stuff like this. dont want to jeopardize the fam. plus i can already hear my wife yelling at me ..........................
 
yeah crappy thing is i am at work now so hopefully no one tosses a lit cig but out the window
 
Many years ago i brought home a 1957 Lincoln that was supposed to run. I had it in my garage since my driveway is sloped and I hate working that way. I poured 5 gallons of gas into the tank and weent to work to try and start the car. I didn't get it to fire that afternoon so I closed up the garage went upstairs to bed. At about 2 am I woke up with one of the worst headaches I had ever had and my entire house reeked of gasoline. I ran downstairs and opened the garage to find that all five gallons of fuel had apparently leaked out of a hole in the tank bottom. It was still dripping. The garage floor was saturated and the fumes were so thick you could almost see them. At this point I realized that the water heater and furnace were in the garage right next to the car. Both of these units are gas fired and had burning pilot lights! Even though it was 2 am I opened the garage door and every door and window in my house and left them that way. I pushed the Lincoln out into the driveway as far as I could too. To this day I am not sure why I, along with my entire family did not go up in a giant ball of flame that night. Gasoline is incredibly explosive. Ask me how I know. I assume it was the fact that the water heater and funace were 18 inches off the floor per code that saved us. Anyway, the house smelled like gas for weeks but after the initial spill had evaporated I wasn't too worried about ignition. All that to say that I don't think you should worry about the driveway spill since it's outside. It may smell for a while but it should be safe enough.
 
RedScampi said:
Many years ago i brought home a 1957 Lincoln that was supposed to run. I had it in my garage since my driveway is sloped and I hate working that way. I poured 5 gallons of gas into the tank and weent to work to try and start the car. I didn't get it to fire that afternoon so I closed up the garage went upstairs to bed. At about 2 am I woke up with one of the worst headaches I had ever had and my entire house reeked of gasoline. I ran downstairs and opened the garage to find that all five gallons of fuel had apparently leaked out of a hole in the tank bottom. It was still dripping. The garage floor was saturated and the fumes were so thick you could almost see them. At this point I realized that the water heater and furnace were in the garage right next to the car. Both of these units are gas fired and had burning pilot lights! Even though it was 2 am I opened the garage door and every door and window in my house and left them that way. I pushed the Lincoln out into the driveway as far as I could too. To this day I am not sure why I, along with my entire family did not go up in a giant ball of flame that night. Gasoline is incredibly explosive. Ask me how I know. I assume it was the fact that the water heater and funace were 18 inches off the floor per code that saved us. Anyway, the house smelled like gas for weeks but after the initial spill had evaporated I wasn't too worried about ignition. All that to say that I don't think you should worry about the driveway spill since it's outside. It may smell for a while but it should be safe enough.
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Man you are lucky RedScampi, that could have been very bad.

If you are stressing over it jasonmrenda, see if you can take time during your lunch break. It will ease your mind. Remember, stress is the silent killer.
 
thank you everyone. guess i know what my weekend project will be ......
 
Old boating trick is to mix up a bucket of warm water with lots of joy dish soap in it, pour it over the spill and let it sit for a while. Then hose it down.
 
I like to use brake cleaner and speedi dri to clean it as best I can. Soak it, then toss the dri on it and let it sit for a few minutes. It helps to remove the topmost layers of it. It will never come all the way out of asfault.
 
moper said:
I like to use brake cleaner and speedi dri to clean it as best I can. Soak it, then toss the dri on it and let it sit for a few minutes. It helps to remove the topmost layers of it. It will never come all the way out of asfault.
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I spilled some last summer.......never comes out, had to re seal. just hit the top layer with somthing....won't ignite.
 
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