>>Actually, amazingly enough, one of my certifiable friends is so
>>confident in the safety of gasoline that he actually extinguished
>>his cigarette in it!  I've seen it done, and in disbelief, no
>>explosion, and no flame.  So if the heat of the cigarette is not
>>hot enough to ignite gasoline, would the spark from a dropped cell
>>phone?
>
>I feel certain that you could ignite petrol fumes with cellphone sparks
>under some conditions.
>BECAUSE-
>
>Petrol liquid is NOT flammable.
>ie Petrol is not a "mono-propellant"
>If you can keep the air out you will not ignite petrol (liquid or vapour),
>even  with an oxy-acetylene flame.
>
>Petrol vapour  mixed with air (ideally 14:1 ratio) is highly flammable, as
>we all know.
>
>Properly mixed with air you MAY ignite the vapour with the smallest of
>sparks.
>YMMV
>
>Long ago, we used to weld motorcycle petrol-tanks, on the bike, while
>partially filled with petrol by RIGOROUSLY excluding air from the tank while
>welding - I won't tell you our "safe" method less you do it wrong  and die.
>
>BUT People die regularly while attempting to weld petrol tanks which have
>been "scrupulously" cleaned and dried first. An airforce fitter died here
>from a petrol explosion while gas-axing open a petrol drum which had sat
>"empty" and uncapped for MONTHS on a  storage heap.
>
>
>regards,
>