Demands for Maude to quit...

[Red Light]

The advice was technically illegal and dangerous / unwise as it exceeds the legal domestic storage limit.

However it depends how you take the message, whether you take "jerry can"
1. As specifying a 5 gallon metal container,suitable for the storage of petrol
2. A generic description of a standard petrol can

It seems the official European definition favours No. 2 with no mention of volume.

"Jerrican" means a metal or plastics packaging of rectangular or polygonal cross-section with one or more orifices
http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/danger/publi/adr/adr2011/English/Part1.pdf

 

[snorri]

Anytime I have heard of Jerrycans, this is what has come to mind...........
http://www.hqcompany.com/index.php?theme=7&chapter=102

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Anytime I have heard of Jerrycans, this is what has come to mind...........
http://www.hqcompany.com/index.php?theme=7&chapter=102

That's quite ironic as the term Jerrycan originally referred specifically to the cans made by the Germans in WW2. The American version was known as Ameri-can (original I know).
Another useless fact brought to you by Rickshaw Phil.

 

[ASC1951]

Back to the subject.I think in the next budget there should be a tax for stupidity.Forget the pastie tax lets have a stupidity tax it would raise millions.

We have had exactly that, for several years - it's called the National Lottery.

A total con. It is voluntary taxation, paid by those on and below average income, but spent by the middle classes on subsidising middle class hobbies.

 

[ufkacbln]

Dangerous and illegal because a jerrycan exceeds the legal limit for storing fuel in a domestic situation.
Why do you suppose the fire service immediately issued advice to not do what he said - because they didn't want to deal with the horrific consequences of Maude's stupid comments.

Or a sensible comment misinterpreted by the stupid?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

The lady in question, suffered 40% burns. Snide remarks at her expense are a bit unfair to say the least. You would be amazed just how many members of the public do not know the dangers involved when handling petrol.

The difference between liquid and vapour aside, the woman was 46 for crying out loud, and quite frankly, if you don't know that handling petrol near a naked flame is perhaps, just a tiny bit dangerous by that age, then, well, what can I say??

If I did that, I'd want to die of embarrassment and I'd have to wear a brown paper bag over my head for the rest of my life.... and leave the country...... and change my name by deed poll... and have a sex change and plastic surgery* so that nobody could recognise me under my bag!

Hopefully she will make a full recovery.

Indeed, but putting all the bleeding heart comments to one side, she should still be up for an honourable mention in this year's Darwin Awards.

Guys and gals, I have brain damage, and even I know not to do that! There is only so far sympathy can go.

I mean, where has she been living all her life. Legoland?


* - Although with 40% burns, that might be done anyway.

 

[Red Light]

Anytime I have heard of Jerrycans, this is what has come to mind...........
http://www.hqcompany.com/index.php?theme=7&chapter=102

Jesus, this is getting serious. Even the US websites have sold out of them

 

[benb]

Or a sensible comment misinterpreted by the stupid?

Except it was by any measure not a sensible comment.
The fire service immediately issued their own advice not to store extra petrol.

 

[asterix]

To be honest, I don't think most people realise that the fumes are flammable, rather believing that it is the liquid only that's flammable.

Indeed. There was the episode of the guy who wanted to repair his petrol tank. First he decided to clean the apparently tank with a vacuum cleaner. A spark from hoovers motor ignited the remaining fumes and turned the domestic appliance into a flaming rocket.

 

[Arch]

What a very stupid woman.

Apart from the issue of decanting petrol in a kitchen (or anywhere inside, it would stink of the fumes for ages apart from anything else), with a naked flame going, why was she pouring it into a jug to put in a car? Why not pour from the can into the car - isn't that what they are designed for?

And if the daughter didn't have the money to top up, but was so utterly reliant on her car, she maybe needs to look at her budgetting.

Darwin in action, except she's already passed on her genes.

 

[Red Light]

Except it was by any measure not a sensible comment.
The fire service immediately issued their own advice not to store extra petrol.

I have a couple of cans of petrol stored in my garage. It's for the mower and strimmer. Lots of people do it. What is not sensible about storing petrol within the legal limits in containers designed and sold for storing petrol.

It's not as if he was telling people to store petrol in a tray of jam jars as one woman apparently tried to do.

As for trying to blame him for someone decanting petrol in her kitchen to fill a car that had run out, that is pure political opportunistic exploitation of someone's misfortune.

Sometimes I despair. With all that's going on is the trivia of pasties and petrol cans the best the press and the opposition can come up with to attack the Government?

 

[snorri]

I think most people who are used to storing petrol for garden machinery etc. are using 5 litre containers, and have developed safe means of handling it, eg correct size of filler, regular storage space etc. Also the machinery has a tank designed to make topping up from a can as simple and safe as possible.
Trying to transfer fuel from a 5 gallon jerry can into a vertically positioned fuel inlet on the side of a car is a different proposition altogether.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I keep my Semtex in the garage so it would be dangerous to put petrol in there too.

 

[Archie_tect]

In Java you can buy petrol in plastic 2 litre Cola bottles from carts at the road side in the villages, which they fill up using jugs while pedestrians walk past smoking.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I keep my Semtex in the garage so it would be dangerous to put petrol in there too.

In a little office in Cheltenham an alarm has just gone off.