Posted by Goose on September 10, 2008 at 17:22:30 from (199.184.119.22):
In Reply to: gas prices and e85 posted by happydeere on September 10, 2008 at 11:17:22:
Amongst the current controversy over ethanol, the July, 2008 issue of Automotive Body Repair News published an absorbing and disturbing article about an aspect of ethanol that hasn’t been publicized to any degree, namely the problems involved in fighting ethanol fires. The article was concerned with automobiles burning E-85 fuel, with or without being certified to use E-85, but applies equally to any fire where ethanol is involved.
The problem is, ethanol fires do not respond to normal firefighting techniques and chemicals. Why? Because ethanol is water soluble. In other words, ethanol mixes with water whereas gasoline does not. Tests have shown that E-85 ethanol mixed in a ratio of up to 5 to 1 with water still maintains its flammability. If you pour five gallons of water onto one gallon of ethanol, you create six gallons of flammable liquid.
Imagine, if you will, a car running on E-85 ethanol being involved in an accident and catching fire. In an effort to put the fire out quickly, the responding firefighters aren’t fully aware that they’re dealing with E-85 rather than gasoline and attack the fire with the same tactics and chemicals as are used on gasoline fires. resulting in the fire being accelerated rather than retarded. After all, even if there is a tag on the car labeling it as E-85 certified, the firefighters have no way of knowing exactly what fuel the vehicle is carrying, unless they converse with the last person to fuel the vehicle. And that person may be trapped in the vehicle in a now accelerating fire.
Exacerbating the problem is people who try to save money by burning E-85 ethanol in a vehicle not designed for E-85. They think, “What’s the big deal? The car runs fine.” What they don’t realize is that even though the car runs OK, the various gaskets and o-rings in the fuel system are not compatible with ethanol, and ethanol attacking the various gaskets and o-rings eventually leads to leaks. And leaks lead to the propensity for fire. A contributor to the article in ABRN stated he once sat across the street from a station with an E-85 pump and saw vehicle after vehicle that could not possibly have been certified for E-85 being fueled with E-85.
The article in ABRN was concerned with vehicles brought into a body shop that have developed leaks from ethanol attacking gaskets in the fuel system with fumes from the ethanol propagating throughout the shop. All it would take would be a spark from a welder to turn the shop into an inferno.
Ethanol also does not respond to foam normally used in petroleum fires, in fact it attacks the bubbles in the foam and renders them useless. This was discovered when a couple of tank trucks hauling ethanol “crashed and burned”. All the firefighters could do was let the ethanol burn out. There has been a foam developed that will extinguish ethanol, but like anything new it’s high priced and in short supply, possibly beyond the means of the typical small town volunteer fire department.
The rest of ya’ll can do as you please. I’m taking this situation seriously.
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