Originally Posted by kerry edwards

In the late 60's I lived on a college campus in Upstate NY. The college had a station wagon used to run errands. Someone took it downtown, filled it up with gas and the rusty straps holding the tank broke and the tank dropped to the ground. When the mechanic was told of this, he grabbed some bailing twine, went dowtown, tied up the tank and drove it back into the shop which was in the basement of an apartment building. As he drove it in, the slight lurch coming up the ramp spilled about a cup of gas on the garage floor. His helper pulled up the car they had driven downtown to pick up the station wagon right behind the wagon, outside the shop.
About this time, the gas hot water heater in the adjacent boiler room whose door was inadvertently left open, turned on. The fumes from the spilled gas ignited in a flash. This by itself may not have been so bad, apart from scaring the bejesus out of the mechanics. However, it also ignited the liquid gas on the floor directly under the bailing twine. The flames licked up, burning the twine, which let go, dropping the full gas tank onto the garage floor spilling its contents into a raging inferno. The mechanics immediately tried to push the car outside, but the car parked behind it thwarted their attempt. They finally made a flying dash out the door as the whole building went up in flames.
Lots of lessons to be learned there.