Safety Tips about Storing Gasoline

If you have to store gasoline for an emergency generator, your lawn mower. or for other purposes, it’s important to follow some simple safety rules, says Rabun County Assistant Fire Chief Justin Upchurch.  “It’s always a good idea to store your gasoline or diesel in approved containers.  You are usually pretty safe as long as it is in an approved container but we’ve all been to gas stations and we’ve seen people putting gasoline in milk jugs.  I actually saw on the internet a lady was filling grocery sacks somewhere in the United States with gasoline, so that is absolutely unsafe.  So, as long as you keep it in an approved container you’re pretty safe.  As far as storage goes, never store any of this stuff near an open flame.  If there are a lot of open flames in your house that you don’t realize or if you store it in your garage and you have a gas water heater or anything like that.  So, you just need to be very careful.  Some tips on gasoline.  It’s only a fuel, it’s not a solvent, and it’s not to be used for cleaning.  Never use it as a charcoal lighter.  There are always people that think they can use gasoline to start a fire and a lot of times that ends up very bad.  Never bring it indoors even in small quantities.  Store it only in a container that is sold for that purpose.  Fill them outside by placing it on the ground.  If you put it on a truck bed that has a bed liner that can cause some static electricity and you do need a spark when you are filling your gas can.  So, just use common sense.”  Fire codes typically restrict gas storage to no more than 25 gallons.  Fill containers no more than 95% to allow for expansion and keep the cap tight on the container.